One Good Turn Deserves a Brother
by Red Delphi
Summary: When Frisk chooses to go back to their human family, Sans still feels like he needs to be watching out for them. But if Frisk's got their own big brother to take care of them, what exactly is it Sans is trying to protect them from?
1. Chapter 1

**AN: This is a three part story I was originally planning to release all at once. Writing it's taken a lot longer than I expected though, and with finals looming overhead I wanted to at least put the first part out there for people to see just so I can get a feel for if this is something people would even want to read before I completely lose steam. Hopefully I'll have more time to focus on the second and third parts once winter break starts.**

 **I really love stories where Sans gets protective of a bullied/abused Frisk, and in my sadism I started thinking about ways to make that dynamic even better. I latched on to the idea that Sans would probably take personal offense if the abuse was coming from an older brother, and that's where this story comes from. Expect things to get dark, though I'm trying my best to write a villain that isn't one-dimensionally evil.**

The first few humans that crossed paths with the monsters at the base of Mt. Ebott were hikers, campers, a lone park ranger. A few screamed, several ran away, thankfully none of them attacked though. That may just have been because no one had a weapon on them except for sticks and rocks. Not that those wouldn't have hurt plenty, but they clearly hadn't been expecting anything like the return of an entire species of creatures. The ranger had reached for a shotgun he kept in the back of his pickup to scare off wild animals, but Frisk was quick to calm him down. Even with a towering skeleton man in front of him laughing manically he seemed hesitant to shoot with the kid potentially in the line of fire. In the end he grabbed his phone instead, calling his superiors, town officials and anyone he could think of that was more likely to be able to handle something like this than someone at his pay grade. Those onlookers that didn't run away immediately slowly warmed to the jovial monsters, a few children even courageously going forward to nervously touch Asgore and Toriel's soft white fur at Frisk's encouragement.

As the ranger called in news of the monsters' return more and more people started showing up, emergency crews, people from both the local and federal government, and more than a few news crews, which Metaton would have loved if he were there. They seemed to want to interview Frisk, all eager to get the scoop on their adventures, but Frisk ducked behind Toriel, happy to make introductions to break the ice between humans and monsters but apparently too shy to talk about themselves in front of so many people. Papyrus was more than willing to step forward in their place, recounting his heroic adventures aided by his good friend the human. The others chimed in often, Sans usually with a goofy pun and Asgore meekly trying to smooth over the parts that cast him as some kind of human hating tyrant.

Some EMT guy offered them all blankets and warm drinks, partially because that seemed to be standard operating procedure for them when it came to dealing with people who weren't physically hurt but they were still called to treat anyway, and partially because if they didn't they'd probably have to leave for some other emergency call, and he really wanted to stick around and see what happened next. Frisk was leaning against Toriel, absently sipping tea as they sat in the back of the ambulance when a police officer pushed through the crowd, leading a frazzled looking woman and a dark haired teen. "Sir, we've located the child's family," the officer reported to his superior as the woman rushed forward.

"Frisk!" she cried out, wrapping her arms tightly around her child. Frisk didn't move at first, shocked by the sudden embrace, but slowly relaxed and gave a small squeeze back. She finally pulled away enough to look them over, smoothing down their fluffy chestnut brown hair and searching for any visible wounds. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry baby! You aren't hurt are you? Oh god, I'm sorry, I hadn't known about this! Trip hadn't told me you went missing from your camping trip! I had to find out when the police came to tell me they had found you clear on the other side of the mountain! Oh, I knew you were too young to be going out into the woods without me! Please forgive me?" Frisk nodding, taking her hand before reaching out to Toriel.

"Mom. Toriel Mom. Toriel Mom. Mom." They said simply as a way of introduction. The two women looked at each other in surprise, clearly not sure what to make of the other. Clearing her throat Toriel elected to speak up first.

"Ah, yes, that's right. I'm Toriel. I had been looking after Frisk these last few days. Such a dear child. We've gotten very fond of each other in the time we've been together. I take it you are their mo…their mother?" It was hard not to notice the catch in her voice as she reached out to shake the human woman's hand.

"WOWIE FRISK, WHY DID YOU NOT TELL US THAT YOU HAVE SUCH A COOL AND AWESOME BROTHER?" Papyrus asked from the sidelines. The other monsters had quietly gathered around during the display of affection from Frisk's mother. The range of emotions they showed was varied, Undyne and Alphys seemed mostly confused, Asgore looked worried, though it wasn't clear if the concern was for Frisk or for his ex-wife. Papyrus was genuinely excited as he was about everything, and Sans… well Sans was grinning as always but it was hard to tell what that smile meant half the time.

"Erm, how do you know their brother is cool and awesome? He hasn't even said anything yet," Alphys asked, addressing the first of many possible questions that came to mind about all this.

"NYEH HEH HEH! ISN'T IT OBVIOUS DR. ALPHYS? FRISK IS ONE OF THE COOLEST AND MOST AWESOME PEOPLE I KNOW SECOND TO MYSELF. A PERSON LIKE THAT COULD ONLY HAVE A BROTHER THAT IS AT LEAST AS COOL AND AWESOME AS THEM, IF NOT GREATER!" Papyrus explained, clearly proud of his brilliant deduction.

"can't argue with that logic, bro," Sans chimed in with a wink. That got a small smile from Frisk, but caused Papyrus to stamp his foot furiously.

"SANS! OBVIOUSLY WHEN I AM TALKING ABOUT A COOL AND AWESOME BROTHER IT IS IN REFERENCE TO MYSELF! DO NOT TAKE THE COMPLIMENT INTENDED FOR ME FOR YOURSELF!"

"well yeah, but since you're such a cool and awesome person, and i'm your brother, doesn't that mean i have to be at least as cool and awesome as you?" Papyrus gritted his teeth and stamped a few more times, clearly flustered. "is my logic making your head spin now?"

"NYEH HEH HEH! I AM STILL THE MORE COOL AND AWESOME BROTHER HERE! QUIT RIBBING ME!"

Papyrus and Sans' bickering slowly turned into background noise as Frisk's mother waited to speak. "Er… Yes. I'm Susan. And this is my son, Trip." She gestured over to the sullen teen just behind her, a tall and solidly built young man in plaid flannel and dark jeans. "He and Frisk were supposed to be camping together on the western foothills of Mt. Ebott this week, but apparently they were separated and someone didn't think to inform _me_ _or the police_." The emphasis on the last four words sounded like she was trying to guilt him for being so stupid and reckless, but he seemed to brush off her words dismissively.

"It wasn't like that, I've been showing Frisk my survivalist training and I know those woods as good as our backyard. I was going to find them. Besides, they're fine! Even managed to make some new freaky friends despite practically being a mute."

Susan glared at her son, though whether it was for his inadequate explanation or the offhanded insult it wasn't clear. "You are so grounded, young man. No tv, no computer, no video games, no visiting friends, no car, just home, school, and practice until I say so." Frankly, that actually sounded like a pretty lenient punishment all things considered, but he still growled and fumed like it was some sort of great injustice. He tried to protest, but everything he tried to say was immediately silenced with a stern motherly air.

Still sulking, he started to head towards a where their car was presumably parked, stopping just long enough to call over to Frisk. "Really though, I'm glad you're okay. I wouldn't have wanted to be blamed for something bad happening to you." Frisk's eyes were on the ground, shoulders tense as they didn't even look at him.

Clearing her throat, Susan turned back to Toriel. Her expression was a bit unreadable, exhaustion masking whatever her opinion of the situation was. "I really am very grateful to you for watching over Frisk, and it's clear they have grown very fond of you as well. It seems like you and I have a lot to talk about. Quietly," she directed herself towards Frisk again. "Sweetheart, would it be alright if I have a private conversation with Toriel?" After a moment of thought Frisk gave a solemn nod and let go of Toriel's hand. "Thank you. Don't worry this won't take long, just stay with your friends and we'll be right back."

Frisk stepped away to rejoin the group of monsters, sitting next to Sans. The conversation had turned away from brothers and the arrival of Frisk's family and instead Papyrus and Undyne seemed to be showing off their magic to some reporters. Frisk knew they probably should be paying attention and be ready to rein things in if either of them let the demonstration get out of hand, but somehow they couldn't bring themselves to look away from where their mother and Toriel were talking. It was…good, that neither of them seemed to be getting angry or upset, right? No crying or shouting, no tears or fighting, whatever they were discussing they were doing it in the calm, reasonable manner grown-ups were supposed to. That meant that whatever conclusion they came to would be the right one, because grown-ups always knew the right answer, right?

"hey, kid," Sans speaking up brought Frisk out of their intense concentration. "you know, if you really want to stay with tori, you don't have to leave with your mom just because she came to get you. just speak up about it. i don't think any of us would let her take you if you didn't want to go." Frisk fidgeted a little, staring down at the ground instead of looking at him or at their two mothers. It wouldn't be wrong to do as he says, would it? Their lips barely opened to speak before Sans added, "i certainly wouldn't be okay with it if she's done something bad enough for you to not want to go back with her."

"My mom's not bad!" Frisk protested, whatever they had been about to say gone from their head. "She tries really hard! She's always really busy at work because she takes extra shifts but whenever she's home she always takes care of me." For a second it looked like they were going to say something more, but held back whatever it was they were going to add. That was probably a good thing as Toriel and their mother seemed to have finished their conversation and were heading back over to them.

"My child, it seems that, for now, it would be best for you to return to your family," Toriel explained sadly. "Worry not! We will still see each other frequently and you will be welcome at my home any time you like. But your mother is concerned about giving you up to perfect strangers, and honestly I would feel the same way in her position. This is for the best."

"After the monsters have settled on the surface, if you still really want to live with her we can discuss it then, but for now you belong at home, with me and your brother," Frisk's mother chimed in. She knelt down in front of her child and brushed their bangs out of their eyes gently. "Please tell me you understand, Frisk." Frisk didn't say anything but did nod sullenly. They fought back tears as they gave Toriel a big hug, not letting go for a long time.

When Susan had finally been cleared by the police to take her child home, Sans watched as Frisk's mother led them away. "you sure you're okay with this, tori?"

Toriel wrung her hands together, knuckles probably white under the fur. "Of course it pains me to see them leave, but human and monster relations are too tenuous right now to be fighting over custody if we can't give a good reason why Frisk should stay with us. And Susan really is willing to work with us to let Frisk visit us. We even discussed a schedule for Frisk's duties as human ambassador. She seems like a surprisingly open minded woman, Frisk must have gotten that from her."

"i wonder about that," Sans muttered under his breath. The crowds had finally thinned some as the media circus died down and he could see the humans get into a small car in the parking lot and drive away, Trip in the passenger seat.

* * *

It had been about two weeks since the monsters had arrived on the surface and things were going about as well as one could hope for. Although a lot of humans seemed to be scared of monsters, most weren't willing to admit it, and fewer still were insisting on responding with violence. No one wanted to admit that despite the cultural advances of their society, racism could still affect their decision making, even if it was a racism biased against creatures that actually were an entirely different species than the human race. The more reasonable issue for people to focus on was how exactly to incorporate an entire magical society into the mundane one, and what to do about the underground land they came from. The most commonly discussed option was a plan that hybridized the ideas of American Indian reservations and extraterritoriality, granting the monsters dual citizenship of both Home and the surface country they had been living under, with monster laws taking precedence when applicable (assuming there were actual written laws in monster society, as legal conflicts were rare underground and judgements seemed to be based on whatever King Asgore's mood had been at the time). There was also talk about gifting the monsters Mt. Ebott and the surrounding foothills for their own development, but that was more openly controversial. That land was considered a national park, after all, and even if climbing the mountain was considered a stupid and dangerous thing from which one would never return, robbing the entire country of their right to it was something even the most sympathetic human politicians hesitated on.

A more thorough discussion of the possible repercussions of this proposal was scheduled that day, with Ambassador Frisk attending as they had every big monster/human meeting. True to Susan's word, she had been amazingly accommodating with her child's new busy schedule. Every morning she dropped Frisk off with Toriel on her way to work, and they'd chat about what was planned for the day. If their meetings would be over after Susan got off work she would come pick them up at the end of the day, but more often she'd be working late, so Frisk would usually beg to stay over for dinner with the monsters before someone else would take them home.

Today was the first time that there had been a change to that. The big meeting hadn't been scheduled until the afternoon, and as it was the only thing Frisk had to attend that day, they hadn't gotten a ride with their mother. They had said they could get over to the meeting hall on their own, but Sans decided to swing over to their house and give them a ride himself. He'd just acquired his own set of wheels, a speedy little moped, and even if he didn't have all the right paperwork for it he wanted this chance to show it off. And possibly to get a closer look at what Frisk's home life was really like.

Something about Trip had been bugging him at the back of his mind for days. Sans had to admit that maybe he just felt a bit biased against the guy based on his first impression of him. It irked him that this guy didn't seem all that concerned about Frisk. The kid went missing for days while on his watch and all he cared about was getting blamed for it? There was so much wrong with that he didn't know where to begin. He couldn't imagine being that uncaring towards Papyrus. But then again, he and Paps only had each other, while it looked like Trip and Frisk could at least rely on their mother. Maybe he just didn't care for the responsibility that came with being put in charge of a small child. Sans could almost sympathize with that. That wasn't really an excuse for being so cold towards the kid though.

Trying to put those concerns at the back of his mind, Sans pulled up to the house. It was a simple two-story house in a suburban neighborhood, a little larger than his and Papyrus' place back in Snowdin, with some flowering bushes out front. There was a jeep parked in the driveway, maybe Trip's when he wasn't being grounded? He should probably be prepared to talk with him as Sans rang the doorbell. What Sans hadn't been expecting when the door opened was for a teenaged girl to be standing there. She let out a small shriek, gaping at the skeleton man in front of her. "whoops, sorry, guess i got the wrong house," he started to apologize when someone called out from inside the house.

"What's all the screaming a- Woah! Hey you're Frisk's friend right? I remember you from Mt. Ebott," Trip came into view from behind the girl, working his way around her to stand in the doorframe. "I guess we haven't really been introduced, but I'm Trip and this is my girlfriend Kelly."

"sans. sans skeleton." He said, not bothering with a handshake as he kept his hands in his pockets. It wouldn't really be funny to pull the whoopie cushion trick on two people at once, and besides, he didn't exactly feel like shaking this guy's hand in the first place.

"So you're really just a skeleton, huh?" Trip asked, poking Sans' shoulder curiously. Sans stood his ground, not letting the gentle nudge move him as he stood there with his hands in the pockets of his big blue jacket. Trip poked him a few more times, practically shoving him as the force slowly increased. Finally he pushed hard enough that Sans had to give in and he reached up to swat him away with his bony hand. That surprised Trip and he stared for a moment at the skeletal hand. Then his mouth curved into a grin. "Man, that is so, fucking, METAL! I can't believe the twerp hangs out with something this cool!" He clapped Sans' shoulder one last time in good spirits and guided him inside the house..

"So you're here to take Frisk to go do that weird monster ambassador stuff, right? That's perfect. Means Kelly and I don't have to stick around here and play babysitter all afternoon. FRISK!" He shouted loudly towards the staircase that lead to the upper story, probably loud enough to be heard everywhere in the house. "Get out here, Ambassadork! You've got company!" He turned his head to the girlfriend, who had moved away from the door after Trip showed up. "Babe, go get your stuff. We'll go hang out with Reggie and the guys."

Sans would have raised an eyebrow if he had them. Wasn't this guy supposed to be grounded? Even if Frisk was out of the house, that shouldn't make it okay for him to be going out as well. For that matter what was this girlfriend doing here? He remembered the rules Frisk's mom outlined. Apparently having her come over was some sort of loophole to the 'no visiting friends' part of his grounding.

Sans saw Frisk arrive at the top of the stairs. They seemed confused by the announcement of a visitor, but immediately brightened when they saw Sans and waved enthusiastically. Sans waved back before Frisk scampered back upstairs, presumably to grab some things from their room.

"yeah, we've actually got to get going. those human officials are such windbags, they take up so much time talking but they get mad if the meeting starts late. hey, just in case something happens, why don't you give me your number so i can call you to let you know if we'll be late or something? i'll put it on my _skel_ -phone."

"Sure, man, sure," Trip answered, apparently not noticing the pun at all as he pulled out his phone. "Good call, man. That's probably the responsible thing to do or whatever so Mom'll be happy about it. I told her it was too important for me to be able to contact people in emergencies for her to take my phone away too, now I can prove it. Thanks a lot." They read their numbers off to each other when Kelly returned carrying her purse. "Alright, Frisk has a key, so remember to lock up the house, Mom's working a double shift today so she won't be back until after midnight. Catch you later, man!"

With that the two teens were out of the house. Sans saw them get into a silver sedan parked on the street, Kelly in the driver's side while Trip rode shotgun. Guess that's one way to get around not being allowed to drive. For a moment he was alone in the strange house, and he took in the surroundings. All together it looked like a fairly normal home. A living room here by the front entrance, doors leading to a kitchen and dining room in the far corner. Clean but lived in, and all of the furniture he could see looked like it was at least five years old.

There was a collection of framed photographs hanging in the entrance, right over a small table covered in mail and old magazines. The photographs were mostly of Frisk and Trip at various ages. School photographs, Trip in a scout uniform showing off an impressive collection of badges, Frisk making a silly face as they dangled from a set of monkey bars. There was one of the two of them dressed up for some kind of play, Trip wearing robes and a fake beard that made him look like a king and Frisk wearing horns and long dangling ears that suggested they were supposed to be some kind of animal (Goat maybe?). There were a few other photographs too, older ones. One of Frisk's mother, dressed all in white and beaming next to a man who bore a strong resemblance to Trip. The man and a very young Trip out at a lake, proudly showing off the tiny fish they caught. All four of them having a portrait taken together, Frisk so tiny in their mother's lap Sans doubted they even understood that a picture was being taken. There was a scuffling sound and Sans turned to see that Frisk had returned, holding the backpack they carried all their monster ambassador papers in. "your dad?" Sans asked, pointing at the man in the photographs.

Frisk nodded. "He's gone," they whispered solemnly, not giving any more explanation. Sans wasn't going to press that issue. If there was more to that story that they wanted to talk about they would have said it.

Frisk crossed the room and took Sans' hand. They led him further into the house. "what's up frisk? got something to show me?" Sans asked. Frisk nodded again. They were smiling a little now, excited by whatever it was they wanted to share. "is it something that's going _tibia_ -mazing?" he added. Frisk's smile got bigger and they nodded even more enthusiastically. "then lead the way, kid."

Frisk led them towards the kitchen, past what looked like a laundry room, and out a back door into the yard. There was camping equipment lined up along the back wall of the house, a shed with a pile of assorted pieces of wood from some half-finished project leaning against it, and…a line of skulls perched on the back fence. Animal skulls, hollow eyes staring out at them. Sans knew a thing or two about bones, and he could recognize what each of them had once been. Deer, sheep, cow, goat. Looking at them just sitting there was downright morbid. "what the hell is that? some kind of sick joke?"

Frisk's eyes went wide as they realized what he was looking at. Apparently that wasn't what they meant to show him. "A project Trip did for biology last year. He keeps them around because he thinks they look cool." From the way they were squirming under his gaze Sans thought that Frisk probably didn't feel the same way.

"well i don't find it very humerus," Sans muttered, forcing himself to look away from the empty eye sockets. "come on kid, what was it you wanted to show me?"

Frisk walked over to the pile of scrap wood by the shed and knelt down. They patted their knees and called out softly. After a moment a black nose poked out from a gap in the wood, followed by the head and body. The small dog's white fur was amazingly pristine despite being out in the elements who knows how long. It barked playfully at Frisk. "I found them here the other night," they explained, smiling as they patted the dog's head. "Is it one of the ones from Snowdin?"

Sans thought for a moment. "all the members of the snowdin canine unit are accounted for. it might just be a regular dog," he said noncommittally. Of course, there was at least one other dog from the underground he could think of that wasn't exactly a member of the sentries. But if this was the same dog -which he couldn't say for sure that it was- he wasn't going to be the one to reveal it. That mutt always seemed to have its own agenda, and if that had something to do with hanging out at Frisk's house that was fine by him. It would be nice to know he wasn't the only one watching out for the human.

"I might ask my mom if I can keep it then, if it sticks around. She likes animals." Frisk said as they stroked the dog some more. Suddenly the dog leapt up, grabbed Frisk's backpack and carried it to the other side of the yard. Sans thought about using blue magic to stop it –that backpack had important stuff in it after all- but before he could act the dog stopped and shook its head ferociously. The backpack opened and papers spilled out all over the yard.

Sans and Frisk started collecting the fallen pages when Sans realized the papers he was picking up were blank. In fact, looking out at the mess of loose leaf pages, all of the papers were blank. "i think you're missing a few things from your notes," he said as he showed the blank documents to Frisk. "like words."

Frisk looked shocked before their face crumpled into understanding. "It must have been Trip. He must have swapped out the stuff in my backpack as a prank." They gave a resigned sigh and stuffed the blank papers back into the bag. "Hopefully he'll give them back this time."

Sans didn't like the way Frisk said that. How often had had Trip done something like this before? And how often did they get them back? All the humans seemed to think Frisk was little more than a figurehead, didn't take their attempts to play an active part in paving the way for monster-human relations seriously. Trip stealing important documents just before a big meeting made Frisk look like the irresponsible child their naysayers called them out to be. "it's getting close to the meeting time. come on, if we hurry we might be able to get new copies of those boring documents and reports before it starts."

Frisk nodded and started over to the house, still clutching the backpack full of useless papers to their chest. Together they walked back through the house out to the front door. Frisk pulled out a keyring with several different sized keys on it and began to lock up the house. They walked over to Sans' new moped and Sans held out a spare helmet. Sans was still thinking about Trip's prank. He didn't really want his type of humor to be associated with that kind of cruelty. "hey, kid. if you don't want me to pull any more pranks on you because that guy thinks stuff like this is funny then-," Sans didn't finish his sentence as Frisk shook their head no.

"I like your pranks. They're silly, not mean," they explained as they put on the offered helmet. It didn't fit right, and they realized something was inside it.

"i was going to say 'maybe you should wait to put on your helmet'," Sans finished with a wink as Frisk pulled the helmet off. A pair of hotdogs, nestled in paper wrappers and still steaming hot, balanced on top of their head. Sans grabbed one of them and took a big bite, polishing off almost half of it. Frisk reached up carefully to take the other one. They didn't know how it wasn't squished from being carried around in a moped helmet, or how it could still be warm sitting out for so long. Just part of what made Sans Sans. If he didn't do stuff like this it would just be non-sans. Frisk giggled as they realized the pun they just thought of, which caused Sans to look at them questioningly. "i know my jokes are hilarious, but if you aren't going to eat that i'll finish it." Frisk shook their head vigorously and moved to shield their hotdog from him before taking a small bite. The taste was…questionable. They decided to store the rest of it for later. "all right then, but for real though, we'd better get going. don't want to be late for getting bored to death." Nodding, Frisk put the 'dog-less helmet back on and Sans revved the engine on his little bike before zipping off down the road.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: I want to take a moment to thank everyone for the response this story has been getting. Every review, favorite, and follow has meant a lot to me, especially the ones that have been coming in even weeks after the first chapter was released, because it shows that there is real interest in this story that's more than a knee-jerk reaction to something new showing up on the first page of the Undertale section. You guys have done so much to keep me motivated. I both love you all and blame you for if I end up flunking out of my grad school program because I kept thinking about how much I wanted to be writing this instead of studying for finals.**

 **I know I originally said that this story was only going to have three parts, but in my initial outline I had planned three acts, each consisting of two scenes. Not only have I realized there is also going to need to be an epilogue that goes into some pretty deep discussion of some things mentioned in the climax, but the first scene of this second part has turned out to be long enough to rival the first chapter in its own right. So now it's looking like there will be four parts, with the second part of what was originally going to be the second chapter and the first half of what was originally going to be the third chapter being one part and the second half of the climax and the epilogue making up the fourth. Yay I guess? I'm hoping you'd enjoy the story being longer than I anticipated, though really it's just that the scenes I had planned out turned out to be much wordier than I originally thought they'd be when I was plotting out the story I wanted to tell.**

It had been a little over a week since most of the monsters had seen Frisk. Not on purpose or anything, but the school year had finally started and that just made it that much harder to hang out with them. It would still be at least another year before Toriel could get a school up and running herself, so Frisk was still going to the human school they had been going to before. Things had calmed down enough on the monster ambassador stuff that they usually weren't needed for more than an hour or two each day after school, and their mother had insisted on Frisk coming straight home to work on homework afterwards rather than staying over to hang out with their monster friends. Toriel and Asgore were pretty much the only ones to have seen Frisk, and Papyrus once when there was a publicity event where it was deemed a good idea to have him there as mascot. Everyone else had been shooed away from attending anything vaguely political, on the grounds of being -on a case-by-case basis- too lazy, too socially awkward or too likely to potentially suplex a world leader.

Today was different though. It was a Saturday, and more importantly, it was the day of Mettaton's big surface debut. He was slated as the headlining guest for some late night talk show, and everyone agreed this was a cause for a celebration. There was going to be a big viewing party at the house Frisk's monster friends were all sharing until they could make their own living arrangements, and Frisk's mother had even agreed to let them sleep over. Definitely a big night.

"SANS THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE SPAGHETTI YOU BOUGHT," Papyrus complained from the kitchen. A big party required lots of food, and of course he'd be contributing his signature dish. Toriel was in charge of most of the cooking, but she had assured Papyrus that his noodles would still be a main feature. They'd just be supplemented by lots of other, more edible dishes.

"what's the problem, bro?" Sans asked as he shuffled in.

"THE NOODLES ARE TOO THIN. THEY'RE ALL FRAGILE AND STRINGY. I DON'T THINK THIS IS SPAGHETTI AT ALL."

"that's im-pasta-ble. of course it's spaghetti. see, it says right here, spaghetti-" Sans reread the label on the package before stopping midsentence. "my bad bro. you're right. this stuff isn't just thin, it's teeny. spaghet-tini." He pointed to the label, which caused Papyrus to groan loudly.

"I SWEAR, IF YOU DID THIS ON PURPOSE JUST TO MAKE A STUPID PUN I AM NEVER PUTTING YOU IN CHARGE OF GROCERY SHOPPING AGAIN."

"well with that kind of incentive i almost wish i did, but if i were to take credit for it you'd have to call me an im-pasta." Sans shrugged.

"YOU ALREADY USED THAT PUN," Papyrus noted while grinding his teeth.

"no, the first time i said 'im-pasta-ble,' this time it was 'im-pasta.' same inserted word but different root words. thus different puns. but if you can't see pasta that we can just say that the first one slipped out pun-intentionally."

Papyrus was positively fuming by then, his jaw opening and closing repeatedly as he failed to think of words appropriate enough to express himself. "Knock it off both of you," Undyne shouted from the kitchen table. When she had offered to help, Toriel managed to convince her to make a salad to accompany the spaghetti instead of more pasta. Her salads were actually pretty good so long as you didn't mind bruised vegetables or dressing splattering the kitchen walls. At the very least there was less risk of anything catching fire. "Frisk will be here soon and-," Undyne was interrupted by the doorbell ringing. "That's them!" She threw the salad bowl she was holding up in the air and lettuce leaves scattered around the kitchen as she bolted for the door, eager to be the first one there. "Hey squirt! You're late! It feels like I haven't seen you in forever! Get in here al- woah, what happened to your face?"

Sans could hear Toriel give a small gasp from behind Undyne. He walked out of the kitchen to see what the fuss was. Frisk was standing at the front door with their mother just behind them, carrying an overnight bag and pillow. Frisk's right eye was surrounded by a dark ring and there was a swollen lump just above it on Frisk's forehead, the center already starting to bruise a nasty purple color. Frisk tried to duck their head shyly, but that only made the injuries more prominent.

"Frisk hit their head on our coffee table when they were roughhousing with Trip this afternoon," Susan explained, speaking up when Frisk didn't give an answer. "I was worried about them staying over, but they were very insistent on watching this show with all of you, and there doesn't seem to be any signs of a concussion or internal bleeding. If you aren't comfortable with watching over Frisk tonight though because of this, I'd understand. We can just raincheck the sleepover and I'll come back to get them at the end of the evening." She didn't sound like she was trying to make excuses to back out of their plans, just genuinely concerned about leaving her child with someone else when there was still potential for an overlooked injury.

"Nonsense. We've all been looking forward to this," Toriel insisted soothingly. "I've seen my fair share of kids bumping their heads into things, I know the sort of things a parent needs to watch out for. Frisk will be perfectly safe here tonight; I'll take good care of them." She reached out a hand and Frisk leaned into it, letting her run her fingers over the lump tenderly. Susan's shoulder's softened, and she seemed to accept her assurances.

"If you're sure you're alright with it then. I prepared a list of signs that they should be taken to a doctor, just in case, and included the names and contact information for our regular doctor and the nearest emergency clinic," she conceded, rummaging through her bag to pull out a sheet of paper. "I trust that you'll call me if anything happens, no matter what time of night?"

"Of course we will. Everything's going to be just fine," Toriel assured. Sans ducked out of the room as they did their motherly thing, discussing bedtimes or whatever it was parents did. Using a shortcut he went outside the house and waited by Frisk's mother's car. A few minutes later she emerged, waving goodbye as she walked down the steps. When she saw Sans standing there she did a double take, glancing back at the house. Guess she noticed he'd been inside earlier.

"i wanted to talk with you before you left," Sans explained, ignoring any unspoken questions about how he'd gotten past the front door without her noticing. "just be honest with me; did frisk really get that bump the way you said they did?"

Susan looked visibly offended. "You think I would lie about how my child was hurt?" she asked, sounding disgusted by the suggestion.

"no, not lie exactly. but let me rephrase the question. **whose version of the story did you tell in there: trip's, frisk's, or yours?"**

Her eyes widened, and then narrowed as she attempted to hide that initial shock. "I don't like what it sounds like you're trying to imply," she said quietly. "Trip is a good son, he'd never lie to me." Guess that answered that question. She hadn't seen the fight herself; she was taking Trip's word for what happened. Maybe he should try another approach.

"what about this roughhousing? he's more than a foot taller than frisk and he's got at least fifty pounds on the kid. not exactly a fair fight." Maybe he was just being unfair in comparing a teenager who doesn't know his own strength with Papyrus, but his brother could control himself, he'd never hurt someone more than he intended to.

"It wasn't a fight! They were just messing around and Frisk got hurt, it happens all the time."

"which 'it?' the roughhousing or frisk getting hurt by it?"

Susan gaped for a moment, opening and closing her mouth a few times. It was almost a perfect imitation of what Papyrus had done just a few minutes before back in the kitchen. Huh, it was a lot less funny when she did that. Finally she managed to compose herself enough to say with barely contained distain, "I have two healthy, active, _amazing_ kids. Yes, they have a lot of arguments, and yes, Frisk sometimes gets hurt from them, but it's always an accident. Trip knows I'd never let him get away with hurting them on purpose." But she somehow let it slide if she could believe he hadn't meant to hurt them, and she was willing to believe a lot.

Sans sighed. He wasn't getting anywhere by making accusations without proof and pressing her further was just causing her to close up tighter. "maybe we got off on the wrong foot here. i'm not trying to make you out as a bad parent or anything, i just want to look out for my friend. you'd understand that right? let me know if they've got any problems?"

Susan sniffed. "Well, I think you're looking in the wrong places then," she told him as she opened her car door. It was pretty clear she didn't intend to let this conversation last much longer. "You know, there is one thing I've noticed that's bothering Frisk. Trip's got this animal skull collection, ghastly thing but if it got him interested in science I'll allow it." Sans nodded, remembering the line of skulls he'd seen at their house. "Sometimes he'll leave the skulls in strange places as a joke, you know, like you'll open a closet and find a dead cow staring you down," That didn't sound very funny to Sans, though he'd admit he's done similar stuff to Papyrus in the past. Just not with skulls, never with skulls. "Well, that never really bothered Frisk much before, but lately it's been upsetting them a lot more. They've even had nightmares about it. I've been woken up by them crying out in their sleep about sharp toothed skulls with glowing eyes. Then again," she looked pointedly at Sans. "Who's to say that Trip's really the one to blame for that?"

Now it was Sans' turn to gape openly as she drove away. She wasn't serious about that. She couldn't be serious about that. She wouldn't be letting her kid stay over overnight if she honestly thought Frisk was scared of him. She just said that as a little pointed dig to get back at him for making accusations about her son. But damn if she hadn't stumbled on the exact right thing to really get him rattled.

Sans had a theoretical knowledge of other timelines, mainly from a vague sense of déjà vu that left him feeling paranoid whenever there was something that happened that could have ended differently. It was that vague feeling combined with being a good read of people so he could guess how they'd react to something that allowed him to map out what he thought was a complete map of all the variables and their potential outcomes. This of course included his own reactions to things, but there were some timelines he was just better mentally prepared for than others. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst, right? Since most if not all of the variables he knew about centered around Frisk, he was pretty sure the kid knew a lot more about this stuff than he did, though how deeply they'd explored it he couldn't really say. A timeline where he'd scare Frisk, traumatize them enough to cause nightmares like the ones she described, well, that was firmly in the category of "the worst." But as he was such a good read of people, he could usually tell when the kid was acting with knowledge of some other timeline. They'd never shown signs of being afraid of him before. There was no way that they had done something that would make him _make them_ afraid of him.

It took him way too long to compose himself enough to finally be able to come back inside. Frisk was rolling out their sleeping bag by the couch in front of the television in the living room. Frisk's face was already looking better - healing magic took longer to fix physical injuries than magical ones, but they'd still probably be good as new by morning. The sullen, squinty look on their face still hadn't gone away though.

"THERE YOU ARE SANS! FRISK WAS TELLING US ABOUT THEIR NEW PET!" Papyrus said when he reentered the living room. Frisk looked up when Papyrus called out to him, and for a moment, a brief flash, Sans thought that they tensed up when they saw him. Maybe there was more to Susan's accusations than he thought. Or maybe he just hadn't done as good a job as he thought at covering up how much the conversation outside had bothered him and they were reacting to his own irritation. Or maybe it was just his imagination and he had himself looking for signs that weren't there.

"your mom agreed to let you keep the dog, then?" Sans asked, keeping his voice light to defuse the slight tension.

Frisk nodded. "Trial basis. If it behaves and I take care of it she'll let it stay," they explained. Sans wasn't quite sure what 'behaving' would mean for that dog. Not stealing stuff? Only leaving dog residue out in the yard? Whatever it took to stick around, it probably would just barely toe the line.

"Have you given it a name yet?" Toriel asked as she came back from the kitchen. She was setting out the last few dishes for their meal. It really was a nice spread, even the snail pie smelled delicious, the scent of garlic and butter overwhelming any potential ickiness.

Frisk shook their head no. Papyrus mumbled something about calling it 'bone thief,' but it was actually Alphys that spoke up first. "Y-you should, you should call it Toby!" she exclaimed suddenly. Everyone stared at her for a moment. Where did that come from? "Erm, I mean, I've been reading this old human mystery series because some people on the anime forum I've been going on recommended it, well they didn't really recommend it they recommended this modern adaptation of it but I wanted to read the original to get a better understanding of it, and the main character has this dog named Toby. Well, he doesn't really _have_ it, he just borrows it from a friend whenever he needs to track a scent, and I think that canonically he only ever used it once, but the fans really like the dog and it keeps popping up in fan works so I thought maybe it would be a good name for a dog that keeps popping up unexpectedly…" Alphys trailed off.

"That's a dumb name," Frisk snapped. Now Sans was staring at the kid. Did they really just say that? It wasn't like them to insult anyone, especially not awkward, nervous Dr. Alphys, who was looking embarrassed and crushed at the dismissal.

"Oh…N-no you're right. You wouldn't want to name a pet after a character you've never heard of before. That was stupid of me," she said quietly. There was another awkward silence in the group. "H-Hey, is dinner ready yet? I'm starving!" She hastily attempted to change the conversation. Willing to go along with it, everyone agreed that it was time to eat and they all sat down at the table.

Dinner resumed a more normal tone as everyone avoided the topic of pet names. Toriel told them about the progress she was making with getting the accreditation she'd need to teach on the surface. Asgore talked about the plans that were proceeding for the new monster "embassy" being built in town, mainly his plans for the garden. Even Alphys was coaxed into talking about her work a little, cheering up as she explained the complex new magic tech she was creating in collaboration with some human scientists. The government was mostly interested in it to better understand the monsters' level of technological advancement, but it was interesting work, and she was better at integrating magic and technology than she was at experimentation with souls, so it was exciting stuff to her. Everyone assured Papyrus that his spaghettini was fine, and no one minded that it turned out mushy from the thin noodles being cooked as long as you would normal spaghetti.

After dinner Sans excused himself from the clean-up by claiming he'd need to take a nap if he was going to be awake enough to watch this late night program. Frisk had been excused too of course, by virtue of being the guest, and after a brief "discussion" on who should keep them company (It very nearly would have been called a brawl if Toriel hadn't broken it up and ordered Papyrus and Undyne to settle it with a game of rock-paper-scissors) Papyrus was excused as well. Sans would have expected him to want to spend the time playing with action figures, but he apparently had other plans.

"FRISK, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, BEING SUCH A GREAT FRIEND, HAVE NOTICED YOU WERE BEHAVING IRRITABLY TONIGHT. YOUR MOTHER LISTED THAT AS ONE OF THE POSSIBLE SIGNS OF A LATE-SURFACING CONCUSSION, SO I THINK WE SHOULD GO OVER THE OTHER POINTS ON HER LIST TO SEE IF THIS IS SOMETHING SERIOUS!" How did he manage to still sound excited about head trauma? And how did he come to the idea that that was the answer for tonight's tension? For all his supposed skill at reading people, and despite his earlier concern at their injuries, that answer probably wouldn't have occurred to Sans. Sans made an extra effort to look like he was asleep so they wouldn't notice him listening in.

"I'm fine Papyrus," Frisk mumbled irritably.

"YOU ARE NOT FINE. YOU REFUSED TO GIVE HIS MAJESTY A HUG WHEN YOU GREETED HIM, WOULDN'T TOUCH A BITE OF MY SPAGHETTI, AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON HOW YOU BEHAVED TOWARDS ALPHYS." More stuff Sans had failed to notice. Man, Papyrus was really picking up the slack for him. As usual. "YOU HAVE BEEN THE TEXTBOOK DEFINITION OF 'CRANKY' ALL EVENING AND I DEMAND WE GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS!"

"Well, it's not a concussion. Toriel healed me already, remember? I'm fine."

"I KNOW," the skeleton sighed. Uh-oh. That was Pap's serious tone. He usually only used that when he'd try to get Sans to talk about his problems. "I THOUGHT BLAMING IT ON A HEAD INJURY WOULD GIVE YOU A READY EXCUSE FOR YOUR BEHAVIOR. IT SEEMED BETTER THAN THE OTHER REASON I COULD THINK OF. YOU'VE BEEN MEAN TO EVERYONE TODAY BECAUSE YOU HAD A BAD DAY, AND YOU WANTED TO TAKE IT OUT ON OTHERS TO MAKE YOURSELF FEEL BETTER, AM I RIGHT?"

There wasn't an immediate response from Frisk. Going against all good eavesdropping instincts Sans opened an eye partway so he could see what was going on. The kid's face was all scrunched up, like they wanted to cry but were stubbornly holding back tears. "Bad few days," they corrected quietly before rushing over to Papyrus. The larger skeleton barely had time to open his arms to welcome them into a hug, scooping up the small child and falling back onto the nearby armchair. "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry," they whispered burying their face in Papyrus' ribcage.

"IT'S ALRIGHT FRISK. EVERYBODY HAS BAD DAYS AND THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL ALWAYS BE THERE FOR YOU. BUT TELL ME, DID BEING MEAN ACTUALLY MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER AT ALL?" Frisk shook their head, face still pressed against his chest. "THERE'S YOUR PROBLEM THEN! WE NEED TO FIGURE OUT WHAT WOULD MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER AFTER A BAD DAY!" Papyrus gently straightened Frisk up, looking them in the eye with a bright smile. "LET'S SEE, UNDYNE'S METHOD FOR CHEERING HERSELF UP USUALLY INVOLVES PROPERTY DAMAGE." He rubbed his jaw bone, thinking hard about it. "I'M NOT SO SURE THAT'S A GOOD SOLUTION, ACTUALLY. NOW SANS," Sans quickly forced his eye shut again at the mention of his name. Didn't want them to look over at him and catch him peeping. "WHEN SANS HAS A BAD DAY, HE USUALLY GOES OVER TO GRILLBY'S AND EATS SOMETHING GREASY AND DISGUSTING." This was true.

"Then he does that way too much," Frisk pointed out. Also true. Well, at least they sounded like they were cheering up a little, getting caught up in Papyrus' eagerness to help bring them out of their funk.

"NYEH HEH HEH," he chuckled conspiratorially. "MAYBE YOU SHOULD TELL HIM THAT FOR ME NEXT TIME. HE'S STOPPED LISTENING WHEN I SAY IT." Not true. "LET'S SEE, WHO ELSE CAN WE USE AS AN EXAMPLE?"

"What about you? What do you do when you've had a bad day?"

"ME? WELL I…" Sans couldn't remember the last time Papyrus had had a really bad day, at least one bad enough to affect his boundless optimism. He half expected him to claim that he didn't get bad days, or if he did, say something about making pasta or creating puzzles. "WHEN I HAVE A BAD DAY I TRY AND UNDERSTAND WHAT CAUSED THE BAD DAY, SEE IF I CAN FIX IT AND MAKE IT BETTER. THAT WAY WHAT STARTED OUT AS A BAD DAY TURNS INTO A GOOD DAY!"

"But what do you do if it's not something you can fix? Like it's just part of who they are, no matter how much you hate it?" Another silence, Papyrus apparently stumped for an answer. "Like Sans' jokes. You can complain about them all you want but he's still going to make them."

"FRISK, I…" Uh oh, Sans could hear the tension in Paps' voice. He was about to say something serious again. "HONESTLY I DON'T ACTUALLY HATE SANS' JOKES AT ALL." That nearly got Sans to open his eyes fully this time. This was the first he heard of that. "THEY CAN BE VERY FUNNY, IF OFTEN ILL TIMED. AND I ENJOY SEEING HIM USE HIS BRAIN FOR SOMETHING, EVEN IF IT'S THINKING UP MORE RIDICULOUS PUNS RATHER THAN COMING UP WITH NEW PUZZLES."

"So if they're funny, why not laugh at them instead?" Frisk asked confused.

"IT'S JUST ALWAYS BEEN SOMETHING WE DID, HE'LL MAKE A JOKE, AND I'LL GET MAD ABOUT IT, BUT EVEN WHEN I'M MAD HE KNOWS I STILL THOUGHT IT WAS FUNNY. I THINK HE ACTUALLY ENJOYS ME GETTING MAD OVER HIS JOKES MORE THAN HE WOULD ENJOY IT IF I LAUGHED AT THEM." Although Sans had never thought enough about it to put it into those words, Papyrus might have been on to something. Their little routine (Alphys once called it 'tsukkomi boke' which Sans could only assume meant 'casual punnery') was comfortable for him, and no matter how mad Papyrus got, he could tell his brother still enjoyed it as much as he did. Any other sort of reaction from his brother would be unthinkable at this point.

"BUT TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION, WHEN IT'S NOT SOMETHING I CAN FIX, I FOCUS INSTEAD ON THE OTHER THINGS IN MY LIFE THAT ARE GOOD. THINGS LIKE, BEING OUT HERE ON THE SURFACE WITH YOU AND ALL MY FRIENDS. THAT SEEMS PRETTY GREAT TO ME DON'T YOU THINK?"

"Yeah, it does." Frisk answered. There was another quiet moment, this time more calm than any of the other tense or awkward ones that came before it that night. "Hey Papyrus, I think I know what's going to make me feel better. I want to have a good time with everyone tonight. Do you think we can still do that?"

"NYEH HEH HEH, I THINK THAT CAN BE ARRANGED," he chuckled again. "YOU SHOULD PROBABLY MAKE A POINT TO APOLOGIZE TO DR. ALPHYS THOUGH. IT WOULD MEAN A LOT TO HER IF YOU DID." Sans sighed contently and sank deeper into the couch. Man his brother was awesome. He certainly wouldn't have been able to give the kid that kind of pep talk, and now thanks to it the evening that had started to sour was back on track for being a great day. He was still bothered by what had caused Frisk to be in that mood in the first place, but that was a problem to be solved another day, when there wasn't good food, friends, and a cheesy television program to be enjoyed.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Lots of thanks and love to you readers again for being so encouraging. I always feel so flattered whenever someone feels the need to offer some kind of response. And getting a bunch of new follows and reviews in the last few days had been an unexpected surprise that pushed me through the last few days of editing. Shame that I might be about to dump on all that goodwill.**

 **This chapter was a hard one to write, and not just because of a scene that went through three separate rewrites. I promised at the start that things would get dark, and after that last chapter of fluff it's finally paying off big time. I'm torn between not wanting to spoil and feeling like there might need to be a trigger warning for some things I know certain people take serious offense to. I'll just say that things are going to get ruff. Some people might hate me for this. I know I hate me for this. Let's hate me together. If a lot of people feel really offended by certain events, I may end up adding a warning later, or even bump up the rating if people think it's necessary. I'm just hoping that people don't blow up at me over what in the end was just an incorrect judgement call on what people do and do not need to be warned about.**

Sans made a point to see Frisk every day after the sleepover. Even if it was just for a few minutes, he'd somehow find an excuse to be at the temporary "embassy" (Which was mostly just a rented office space for the humans that were helping to create and fill out the paperwork that would officially grant the monsters citizenship on the surface) when Frisk showed up for the day. He'd usually chat with them a little bit, prepared with a joke about something office related, but sometimes he hung back, just watching unnoticed from the sidelines as they went over plans for a publicity event or tried to explain what a moldsmal was to some of the staff who were very confused when Frisk started doing a sexy wiggle as a demonstration of the creatures' defining characteristics. He wouldn't go as far as to call what he was doing "stalking," more like a continuation of what he'd been doing back when they were still underground. He just wanted to get a feel for how the kid was doing, see if he could catch a build-up of one of those "bad days" before it got too far.

What he saw wasn't the progression of that sullen, squinty look he'd seen that day though, but something different. Each time plans were discussed for some future event or deadline, he'd catch for an instant an almost wistful expression. Like they were thinking about the future less as a definite eventuality, but more as this vague, that-would-be-nice, possibility that they only half expected to see through. Frankly that scared him, more than any sort of temper flare-up from having a bad day would have, because of what it reminded him of.

His knowledge of the timelines back when he was underground, while complete to the best of his knowledge with all possible variables, didn't extend very far into the future. In fact, there was a point when every scenario he thought of just sort of hit a wall. The best way he could describe it is like an epilogue, where you know the end result of the events in a story, but can't really know what happens after, except for the vague assurance that "they all lived happily ever after" (or not). That didn't sound so bad when it was happening to someone else as he read bedtime stories to Papyrus, but when it was your own life in question the effect was a bit more unsettling. On good days he told himself this was just because by then there would be new events with new variables that he couldn't even know about yet. On bad days he was convinced that whatever it was he couldn't predict was something cataclysmic that was going to end everything. On _really_ bad days he was pretty sure he knew what that cataclysmic something was, and that it wasn't just ending the timeline but looping back to the beginning of it and causing all these variables in the first place. He tried to have more good days than bad, but really it was a struggle enough just to have more bad days than _really_ bad days. He didn't have an exact date for when this would happen -just like how he hadn't known exactly when it would be that a human would exit the ruins or how long it would take them to get to Asgore- but the fact remained that for every timeline he'd predicted and mapped out, suddenly everything just stopped. And for this timeline, that endpoint was still looming overhead, the epilogue not quite finished but drawing ever closer to its end.

That reminder made it all the more urgent that he talk to the kid and finally get some answers for what was going on. He told Toriel that he'd stick around to give Frisk a ride home that day. She seemed to be skeptical of his motives but didn't question it too closely. She'd trusted him to watch out for the kid once after all. As far as he was concerned, that hadn't ever really stopped, there was just more in the way of it now. When it was time for Frisk to go home he was waiting for them outside with his moped. "it felt like the two of us were due for a longer talk," he explained. Frisk looked nervous, but didn't run away or refuse when he offered them a ride. "so, it looked like you guys were making plans for some kind of shindig?" he asked, throwing a softball question to break the ice on a conversation he hadn't realized had frozen over.

Frisk gave a half-shrug as they checked their helmet for stray hot dogs. "Nice Cream Social in two weeks. We got my principal to let us have it at my school, and it's supposed to be for human and monster kids, but grown-ups can come too. It seemed like a fun way to introduce other kids to monsters, and get them to try monster food too." They looked like they were trying to sound casual about it, but they were clearly excited as they offered up those details unprompted. One thing he'd picked up on with the kid early on was that they never talked more than was necessary to respond to someone unless it was something that really mattered to them. It wasn't like Alphys' social awkwardness, that fidgeting nervousness until everything bottled up couldn't be held back and it all bubbled forth at once. It was more like they were just used to playing their cards close. Sans could respect that, but it made things damn difficult when it came to finding out what he needed to know from them.

"oh yeah? sweet. i think i butter pecan that event. seems like a sherbet that it'll be a choco-lot of fun." Although Frisk smiled at the jokes, the smile never reached their eyes. There it was again, that wistful look. To kids, time might seem to take forever, but what the hell would make them think of _two weeks_ as being long enough to question getting to see it? "what about things at home? everything alright with you and your brother?"

They froze for a moment, tensed at the mere mention of their brother. "Why do you ask?"

"come'on kid, you know why. it doesn't take a genius to see he's kind of a jerk to you. so is he still giving you grief?"

Frisk wouldn't look him in the eyes. "Just the usual stuff," they said quietly. They moved their right arm to grip their left, protectively holding themselves.

"yeah? what's the usual for him?" maybe it was a good thing Frisk wouldn't look him in the eyes, as they missed the flashing anger in them that he couldn't hide for a moment.

"Lots of name calling. Messing with my stuff. Scaring me 'cuz he thinks it's funny…" Their words faded into silence as they carefully chose whether or not to say more about the things he did. "He isn't always mean to me, you know. When he's in a good mood he can actually be really nice sometimes. He'll let me hang out with him, show me the cool stuff he does for school or scouting projects, tell stories about Dad-"

"that doesn't make it okay for him to bully you. someone ought to put him in his place." Frisk squeezed their eyes shut tight and slowly but firmly shook their head no. The kid really wasn't giving him much to work with. Even knowing the guy was a jerk, Sans was slow to act on his dislike for him. Maybe it was just that he needed to be undeniably certain of a person's sins before he went around judging them, but as long as Frisk kept withholding things from him he'd felt like there was nothing he could do. Even if he thought he had a pretty good idea what it was Frisk didn't want to tell him about Trip. It wasn't that he wanted to be right, but he didn't feel like it was his place to intervene until his fears had been met. Frustrated, Sans gestured for Frisk to get on the back of his moped already. They rode in silence, the wind whistling past them on his bike too loud for even a private conversation. At least it gave him time to think of what he'd say next. When they pulled up to the house everything was dark, no lights shining in the windows, even the jeep was gone from the driveway. When had Trip gotten back his driving privileges? This was almost lucky, as he wasn't sure he could stand to send the kid home knowing that guy was waiting for them. "listen, i know there's stuff you're not telling me. everyone's allowed their secrets, that's fine. but if there's something big that's going to happen that you know about, something you can't handle on your own, i want to be there to help you out."

"That's just it, I _don't_ know what's going to happen," Frisk admitted to his surprise. "All of this –having you guys here- it's all so different. So much has changed already, some good some bad, that I just don't know anymore. Just having you guys around could be enough of a change to fix everything." Despite the hopeful tinge in Frisk's voice as they said that Sans felt pretty certain they didn't believe themselves.

"well, why don't you tell me about what you do know and we can figure out the rest together," Sans offered, trying not to let show how exasperated he was feeling. Why couldn't Frisk just say what was going on already? Them almost saying something, but then backing down and keeping it to themselves was getting old for him. Especially when it sounded like they were talking about something related to the timeline stuff. But again the kid was silent, shaking their head at his offer. "what, you don't think i can help? you know, i may be a lazy bones, but i am good for more than just telling jokes," he pointed out, starting to feel insulted now at their lack of faith in him.

"I know you are," Frisk replied quickly. It surprised him a little, how quick they were to agree with him. "I know you are, but I've got to handle this on my own. So please, just don't do anything unless you have to, okay?" Their lips tightened into a thin line and their eyebrows furrowed as they considered the weight of their next words. "I know you're pretty good at just standing by and letting things happen, too."

Sans could tell that Frisk had said that purposefully to be mean, but not because they were feeling bad this time. They wanted him to get mad and storm off, leave them to whatever it was they wanted to face alone. This wasn't about hurting him, it was about driving him off for whatever reason they didn't want him around. Knowing that didn't mean that it hurt any less though, or that he could stop himself from being angry over it. "no promises, kiddo," he grumbled as he kicked his moped back into ignition. After a conversation like that he _really_ needed to be somewhere else. Preferably a place with dim lighting and a smoky atmosphere.

Although monsters were slowly but steadily streaming out of the Underground, there were plenty of stragglers. A trip from Ebott to Snowdin and back wasn't impossibly long really (even shorter if you happened to know a few shortcuts), so there were still some monsters making the commute regularly to go to the embassy to meet with the humans who were trying to organize housing, job and school placements for all of them. Grillby was one such case. It wasn't like the fire creature didn't want to go out to the surface, but it was proving a slow and difficult process to get all the necessary permits to start up a new bar aboveground. Until the day that the Fire Inspector stopped having a mental breakdown every time he saw Grillby, the monster was content to continue running his old place back in Snowdin, serving burgers, fries and brews to a dwindling but loyal clientele.

This suited Sans just fine. Sure, Grillby's had lost some of its convenience now that he was living on the surface, but it made up for that in comfortable familiarity and in its actual physical distance from his problems. He needed a place he could think on things in peace for a while. He was still fuming over the way Frisk had treated him. Why the hell was the kid so determined to keep him out of whatever was bothering them? If that's the way they were going to be he _should_ just let them deal with it on their own. No skin off his back if something happened because he wasn't there to keep an eye socket out for them.

Except he did care if something happened, and not just because of some vague half remembered feeling of dread and paranoia that made him feel like there was something much worse at stake. He cared about Frisk, probably about as much as he cared about his own brother, though really you couldn't exactly quantify that sort of feeling in terms of which one he valued more. Frisk was like family to him now, that was all there was to it. But Frisk didn't seem to feel the same way, which brought him right back around to the start of the problem, an endless logic loop that couldn't be broken, only drowned out.

Sans was busy doing just that, deep into his second burger and third bottle (beer, ketchup, didn't matter, he liked them both and tended to alternate between them) when his phone rang. Normally he wouldn't have been able to hear it over the sounds of the bar, but the sparse crowd made it easy this time. Not a number he recognized. He answered it anyway. "Hello?" Sans didn't recognize the voice either. He was about ready to presume it was a wrong number and hang up when they said, "Is this the skeleton guy? Sans?"

"who is this?"

"Oh, right. It's me, Kelly." Kelly? He didn't know any Kell- oh. Trip's girlfriend. The one that hadn't said two words to him when they met, unless that initial scream had been hyphenated and he missed it. "I got your number off of Trip's phone," she offered unhelpfully. It explained the how of this phone call but not the why.

She did say anything for a moment. In the background he could hear loud noises, music. Was she at a party somewhere? "you still there?" he finally asked when he got tired of waiting for her to say something.

"I'm 'ere, 'm here!" she exclaimed, slurring her words a little. Drunk, so definitely at a party then. "There was something I needed to tell you…" Silence again as she seemed to forget whatever it was she had been about to say.

"kelly? what was it you wanted to tell me?" Getting information from the inebriated was hard enough with them right in front of you, Sans wasn't enjoying the challenge of doing it over the phone. He should just hang up and not get involved with whatever this was.

"I broke up with Trip!" she burst out, apparently remembering suddenly. She started giggling excitedly, but he couldn't tell if the excitement was from remembering or if she was expecting congratulations about the breakup. "He was being a real dick tonight, and I was sick of his shit so I dumped him! Because I~ am a strong, independent woman and I don't need to be taking shit from anyone! Not even guys that have good hair and play shortstop and know how I like it when he uses his tongue to…" she trailed off again with a moan, mood swinging from elation to regret.

"well, uh, congratulations on your newfound independence, and i'm flattered that you called, but you see i have a policy against dating girls on the rebound so…"

"What? No! Ew." Kelly exclaimed. Even though he hadn't really been serious, Sans couldn't help but feel a little insulted at how disgusted she sounded by the suggestion. "It's Frisk!"

"what about frisk?" He asked sharply, the drunk teen now having his full attention.

"Well Trip was _really_ mad when he left. Like really mad. Like super really scary mad. So I thought maybe someone should go check on the kid. Because he was mad."

Was she really saying what he thought she was? "let's be clear here: are you saying you're worried that trip is going to hurt frisk?"

She blew a raspberry into the phone. "I dunno. Maybe. Iz not like I've ever seen him hurt 'em bad myself, but I'm sick of pretending it's impossible that he would. He's always pushing the kid around and taking stuff out on 'em, it always just kinda seems like a matter of time before he goes too far with it."

"but why call me about it? why not the cops?"

Another raspberry, this time longer and wetter, like the first one helped her remember how to make a good one. "I may be drunk but I'm not stupid. I'm not going to rat on my boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend. Fuck. Whatever. Look, are you going to do something or not?"

"yeah, i will. thanks for the tip," he told her as he hung up the phone, already heading out the door. He almost wondered if he needed to be worried about her at all, but she wasn't really anything to him and if she was lucid enough to call a near stranger for Frisk's sake she was probably going to be fine. The kid came first. He quickly brought Frisk's number up waiting tensely as the phone attempted to connect. No answer. Sans swore quietly as he waited for the away message to turn to voicemail. "i'm coming kid, just hang on. just… damn it, you knew about this, didn't you? i'll have a bone to pick with you later. please let there be a later. please be okay."

Grillby's distance from Ebott which had once been appealing was now torture. Even using every shortcut he knew it didn't feel like he was moving fast enough. When he finally got to Frisk's house he rode right up to the front door, not wanting to waste even a few seconds parking on the street. Trip's jeep was still gone and for a second he thought that maybe he was overreacting. He could see lights on in the house but no movement or signs of life. He rang the bell. No answer. He tried the door, it was unlocked. Taking that as enough incentive to investigate further he went inside.

"frisk?" The first thing he noticed was the picture frames, the ones along the wall in the entrance hall. Several had been knocked down, a few even broken. Sans carefully stepped around broken glass from the photograph of Trip fishing with his father as he explored the rest of the house. There were a few other things in the living room area knocked over or broken; a lamp tipped over, books thrown about, the offending coffee table from the other day had been shoved out of place so that it sat at an odd angle to the rest of the heavier furniture. There was a dingy grey smear on the carpet near the archway that divided the kitchen from the living room. But no people.

Sans moved on to the kitchen. More signs that someone had come through here on a rampage. He wanted to keep going until he actually found the kid, or at least something that could point him to where they were, but his eyes caught on a splash of color by the sink. He got closer for a better look. That was definitely blood. It was splattered on the sink and the cabinet beneath it and on a few places on the floor. In the sink he found clumps of bloodied white fur and what looked like an animal tooth. He tried to convince himself that the stain he'd noticed before had been ground-in dirt, not dust. It didn't work.

After he'd finished emptying his stomach of everything he'd eaten prior to coming there, Sans tried to go to the laundry room to search out a towel or clean rag. He needed something to wipe his mouth off with. The door was locked though so he moved on to the upstairs and found the bathroom there. From there he started systematically checking the bedrooms, looking in the closets and under the beds and anywhere else he could think of that a child could hide. He found Frisk's bedroom, but no sign of Frisk.

Damn it, what was he missing? Did Trip take them someplace else? Even given what little he knew about him it didn't seem likely. This was his home turf, literally, and there wasn't much point in a change in venue if the bastard wasn't going to at least try and cover up that something happened here. Maybe if Frisk was hurt bad enough to need to be taken to the emergency room…but he didn't really want to think about that. Could Frisk have run away, gotten out of the house to someplace safe? They'd never mentioned a friend or neighbor that they could possibly turn to, save the monsters. A quick text to Alphys confirmed that they hadn't shown up there. This was immediately followed by a flurry of concerned questions from the dinosaur lady, which he ignored except to extract a promise from her not to tell the others about this until he had something definite to tell them.

He tried Frisk's cellphone again. He could hear a distant ringing somewhere in the house. Following the noise lead him back to the kitchen, and then outside the laundry room. That was when it clicked for him. Why would a laundry room need a lock? And not just one of those simple courtesy locks they put on bathrooms, but the heavy-duty kind that usually go on the outside of a house that required an actual key. If he recalled the house layout correctly the laundry room was right next to the garage, maybe this door was a remnant of an old entrance before it was remodeled. That still didn't account for the side that needed a key being inside the house. He recalled the heavy keyring Frisk had used to lock up the house. There had been more keys on it than a kid really needed; even accounting for the ones they collected underground. Daring to be just a little hopeful he tried knocking on the door. "knock knock," he added when there wasn't an immediate response.

"Who's there?" The voice was small and trembling, but undeniably Frisk.

"toucan,"

"Toucan who?"

" 'tou can come out now, the coast is clear." Sans could hear shuffling, followed by the click of a deadbolt turning. The next instant a small child was burying their face in his stomach. Frisk's shirt was stretched out and torn and he could see bruises that he definitely didn't remember being there before, though maybe he just hadn't been able to see some of them when the shirt was intact. Mostly though, they just seemed weak, legs shaking as Sans had to support them to keep them standing. Other than that, they seemed unharmed, the worst of his fears apparently unmet. "come on, let's get you out of here."

"The dog, it saved me. Kept biting him until I could escape. Is it-," Frisk started to ask but Sans stopped them from finishing.

"i didn't see it when i was looking around. it probably ran away once it knew you were safe," Sans half-lied. He couldn't really be certain what he'd seen was monster dust, and if anything could fake its own death it was probably that dog. He kind of liked the idea of it holed up somewhere, probably back Underground, doing whatever it was that dog normally did all day. He picked them up since it didn't look like they could walk on their own and held them against his body, trying to shield them from the scene by the sink in the kitchen. He didn't think it worked as they buried their face deeper into his shirt as they crossed the threshold into the living room. So long as he was getting them someplace safe though he could deal with that in time.

* * *

Blankets and hot tea. That was what those EMTs had fallen back on when they didn't know what else to do, so Sans figured he'd do the same thing now. Never mind that the only blankets he had on short notice were the tangled mess from his bed, at least the tea was hot, expertly microwaved by Alphys as her contribution to comforting Frisk. She had been up waiting for them anxiously; when she saw how bad Frisk looked it was all Sans could do to keep her from panicking loud enough to wake the entire household. It was probably a mistake to have tipped her off that something was going on, but the doctor was there now, and he couldn't help but feel a little grateful not to be handling this on his own. If everyone were up though it would be a circus, and he needed answers more than he needed Papyrus fretting or Undyne threatening to pummel everything in sight. He wasn't going to wake any of the others just yet, not until he knew what he wanted to do.

Once he had Frisk wrapped up in blankets on the couch and the tea was served, it was time to talk. "okay kid, tell me everything. no more hiding this kind of stuff. i need to know what's been going on." Frisk swallowed nervously and shrunk deeper into the blankets. It had always been hard for them to talk a lot, maybe it would help if he directed the conversation. "i'm going to ask a series of yes or no questions. you can say as much or as little to answer them as you like, but i need you to give me an answer to them, alright?" Frisk nodded. "good. seems like you understand. now, was trip the one who beat you?" Another nod. There was a soft gasp from Alphys, but he ignored that. Answers were more important. "has he done this before?"

Frisk started to shake their head, but turned it into a shrug. "He hasn't tried to beat me up in a long time." Their voice was dry and horse and they took a sip of tea before continuing. "Not at full strength anyway. Probably not since he turned thirteen. That was the time he broke my arm in two places. Mom was so mad at him for that. He's been careful ever since."

"careful not to hurt you?"

"Careful not to get caught."

"so he does other stuff to hurt you?" Another nod. "what kind of stuff?" Frisk didn't answer at first. "right, yes or no questions only. my bad."

"It's not always the same things," Frisk burst out, surprising him. "He'll do one thing for a while, then get bored and try something new. He likes to see what gets the best reaction from me. Would I cry more from a slap or an indian burn? Would I be more scared of knives or of fire? It's an experiment to him."

"It-it's sick is what it is!" Alphys exclaimed, full nerd ire raging. "I can't believe your mom has been allowing this to happen! She s-seemed so nice, how can she be okay with him doing this stuff to you?!" Frisk flinched at the mention of their mother.

"she doesn't know does she?" Frisk was very still for a moment, then shook their head no. "have you tried telling her about it?"

"She can't know. It would break her again if she found out."

That caught Sans' attention. He'd been assuming that Susan was just willfully blind to what a bastard her son was, but it changed things if she was really being kept in the dark. And that a child felt their parent needed to be protected from what was happening instead of the other way around. "explain."

Frisk took a deep breath, collecting their thoughts. "My mom was really sad after what happened with my dad. Trip says I was too little to remember, but there are some things I do remember. Like how before, Mom would smile a lot more, usually for no reason at all, and there was something about the light in her eyes that would make you feel like smiling too. After what happened to Dad though, it felt like she wasn't really there anymore, just this lifelike doll that kind of looked like her. She didn't smile as much and even when she did, that light wasn't there anymore, just this emptiness that made it feel like she wasn't really looking at you. For a long time, she'd go days without leaving her room, weeks without leaving the house. Trip kind of took over taking care of all three of us out of necessity. Someone still needed to make food, or do laundry, or forge Mom's signature on notes from school. She wasn't doing any of that stuff.

"Don't get me wrong, she's a lot better now! I don't really know why, but one day she just decided to stop being sad. Do-nothing-sad, anyway. She still doesn't smile much, and sometimes, she still has days like before, but they don't last as long as they did back then. Instead she's been doing everything she can to be a good mom for us. She went back to school so she could start working again, and she works really hard at her job so that she can take care of us. Because she's working so hard, she still relies a lot on Trip though, to watch out for me and be 'the man of the house' or whatever." Once it had started it seemed like Frisk couldn't stop themselves from explaining the whole thing. It was the most Sans had ever heard them say in one go, and he hated that it had to be talking about this.

"so you don't tell her because you think finding out how bad things are with him would cause her to go back to the way she was back then?"

Frisk nodded again. "Trip says it would, and when she has a bad day, I think he's right."

"W-what about telling someone else, like a teacher?" Alphys piped up again. Frisk's expression was almost bitter.

"One time, a teacher asked me about some bruises he saw during P.E. He thought Mom had hit me. Once I convinced him that it was Trip's doing, he just thought it was normal sibling rivalry stuff though. I could almost see on his face the exact moment he stopped caring after it was no longer something he was legally obligated to report."

"Well you could have told us!" Alphys exclaimed sharply, as close to angry Sans could ever imagine her getting at the child. "Toriel or Asgore or Undyne or Papyrus! Any one of us would have done anything we could to stop him from hurting you!"

" **or me,"** Sans said. Alphys and Frisk were shocked for a moment when they looked his way. His eyes had gone dark, and for once he didn't immediately correct it once they'd had their dramatic effect. **"i've given you plenty of chances to speak up about this before, hell i flat out asked you about it earlier tonight, so why not say anything? why let it go this far?"**

Sans could see Frisk's feet moving under the blanket as they fidgeted. "When you say anything, would that include fighting him if you had to?" they asked with quiet solemnity.

Alphys gulped nervously and actually hesitated for a moment before giving a single nod. It was unlikely that Frisk actually expected Alphys to fight but she probably did it for the symbolism of the gesture. For Sans it wasn't even a question. **"you know I would."**

"Then that's exactly why I couldn't tell you," Frisk said, their eyes slowly filling with determination as they spoke. "Trip is tough, a lot tougher than me. If it came down to a fight most of you would probably lose. I didn't want any of you to get hurt because of me. And even if you could beat him…" Their determined eyes were locked on to Sans' empty ones.

"I didn't want you to be a dirty brother killer."

Dizziness. Bile. A hornlike droning noise in the back of his head that he'd imagine a heartbeat felt like if he had one. Those senses hit him all at once as their words sunk in. That phrase was so exact he couldn't ignore it. He'd never said it to his knowledge, but what if he had before? A timeline he couldn't remember, there was one kind of scenario he could imagine where he would say those words. Well, really there were a lot of combinations that could lead to it, but only one variable that mattered. Two if you counted a conditional to it. One specific person dead, but at least one other person alive. He realized now he'd never really mentally prepared himself for that one. Somehow that version of the past was so much worse than even the worst version he had been prepared for. It made no sense to kill him and spare others -spare even a single other monster.

" **that's different,"** he could barely get the words out as his permanently smiling teeth ground against each other. His trembling hands clenched and unclenched repeatedly as he forced himself not to ball them into fists. His eyes didn't have that furious glow yet but it wouldn't take much to set him over that edge. Alphys was looking between the two confusedly, trembling with fear though she didn't understand why. **"that's different and you know it. he is completely different from papyrus and if you're going to compare something like that to giving that punk exactly what he deserves then-"**

"He's still my brother!" Frisk burst out, their tiny face contorted into a shocking mixture of fear and pain. That brought Sans suddenly out of his dark ruminations. "For everything that he's done and everything he will do, he's still my brother. If you were to do that to him, I'm sorry but that's all I'd be able to see you as whenever I looked at you. And because I brought you here it's all I'd be able to think of myself as when I looked at my mom." Their mom? Of course. Trust Frisk to consider how much it would hurt other people to lose someone they cared about, even as they were hurting them.

Sans' shoulders relaxed, seemingly resigned as he rubbed the side of his forehead with the heel of his palm. "all right, all right. i get you now. nobody's going to die, i promise." Frisk relaxed a little and Sans knew this was a promise he wouldn't be allowed to break. "for now we should probably wake the others already. or at least toriel. we need to let your mom know you're safe and out of all of us, she's the best one to keep her from completely losing her mind worrying about you." Sans said it like he was trying to lighten the mood, but the words definitely fell flat and Frisk didn't seem to appreciate being reminded of how panicked their mom would be coming home to the scene he saw. He gave a small half-hearted laugh before tilting his head at Alphys and giving her a look. She understood him and followed him out of the room. "you handle tori. fill her in on what's going on as quickly as you can, but whatever you do, don't let her let frisk's mom take them home. i don't trust her to keep them safe there."

"Okay…but what are you going to do?"

"i'm going to find trip of course. gonna make sure he knows not to mess with the kid ever again."

Alphys gaped at him. "A-are you sure that's a good idea? You just promised Frisk that you wouldn't-"

"i promised them that no one would die. didn't say anything about not giving him a taste of his own medicine." Sans sighed and glanced away as he tried to figure out how to explain this. "look, for a long time –too long really- i've avoided doing anything more than what i thought was the bare minimum. i'd wait things out, see if thing's solve themselves without me having to do anything. most of the time, they do. but when they don't, well, it always feels like i waited too long to actually do any good, and if i had acted sooner, it would have saved a lot of pain and hassle." Sans turned back to Alphys, his eyes bright with guilt and anger. "this is one of those times. i waited too long, and now look what happened. i may be too late to have stopped this from happening, but i can still make sure that it doesn't happen again." Sans reached behind him to grab the doorknob –Alphys hadn't realized he was so close to an exit until he opened it. "don't worry, al. he'll be fine when i'm done with him. i just need to let him know that if he keeps this up he'll be in for a bad time." On that he was out the door, not even hearing Alphys shout out behind him as he headed into the night.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: As always, thanks again to the people who have been reviewing, following, or favoriting this story. I don't know if it's some weird wavelength thing or what, but I always seem to get a new notification of another fan right when I'm about to lose motivation. You're what keep me going with this, when by all accounts I should be doing more practical things.**

 **How the hell do you write a fight scene that balances game mechanics with describing actions? You don't, and I'm pretty sure I had to sacrifice the former a bit in favor of the later. Ah well. Epilogue is getting its own chapter because I went long again so look forward to that.**

Although Sans had made it sound like a sure thing that he would find Trip, the truth was he didn't know where to look. It wasn't exactly like he could call the guy up and say "hey, where are you right now? 'cuz i was going to beat you within an inch of your life for what you did to frisk." Not that he wasn't tempted to do that anyway. The idea of leaving a threatening message on his phone was strangely appealing for some reason. But he resisted that urge. There were still plenty of other leads for tracking him down.

Every teenager in town was out tonight it seemed. Maybe there had been a big game at the local high school or maybe there was some human holiday he didn't know about that they were celebrating, but there were small and large parties happening all over town, which the local cops were all ignoring except to calm down a few noise violations or break up some of the rowdier groups. Finding someone that knew Trip wasn't hard, just about everyone he asked knew the guy. Finding someone that knew where to find him was the hard part. The few teens sober enough to pay attention to who was or wasn't around just assumed he was off at a different party, but couldn't really guess which one. Luckily the ones who were completely smashed were more willing to talk anyway.

"It's the skellington guy!" Kelly cheered. He heard her before he saw her. She was leaning heavily on another girl, the designated driver he'd guess from her bored and somewhat put-upon expression. "Skeletum? Skelection? It's the guy that's all made of bones." (Skelection. That was a good one. He'd have to remember it for later.) "Hey. Hey hey hey. Did you go see that kid?"

"yeah. i did. they're fine. but now i need to find trip. he wasn't at home, have you seen him?"

"No and I don't want to! Him and me are through, you understand?! I'm moving on to someone new!" She turned to her friend who was propping her up. "Hey, do you know where Reggie is? I always thought he was cute. I wanna find Reggie."

"No, and I don't think it's a good idea for you to go hook up with your ex's best friend right now," the friend told her rolling her eyes over Kelly's disappointed moans. She looked Sans up and down, assessing him. "What about that place he's always hanging out at? You try there?"

"what place?"

She shrugged, using the motion to hoist her friend up a bit straighter. "There's an unused campsite in the back woods of the park. Park services closed it down ages ago after budget cuts, but it's still accessible by one of the old back entrances. He and his friends kind of made it their own private hangout."

"It's a really good make-out spot too," Kelly giggled.

"how do i get there?"

"Head West on Morrison road, first turn off after the intersection with the old highway. There's a gate right before the spot where the road turns to gravel, if it's unlocked he's probably there." She was still looking at him like she was trying to decide if she was going to regret giving him this information. "I don't know why you need to find him; chances are whatever it is he probably deserves. Just don't do something that's going to make me feel guilty for helping you out."

"why does everyone act like i'm going to do something like that?" Sans muttered without bothering to wait for a response as he turned to leave. Really, he knew why, or at least had a pretty good guess where it was coming from. The things going through his head, if anyone could know what he was thinking they'd be right to be worried about what he was going to do. He wouldn't be surprised if some of those thoughts were coming across on his face. But he'd already made his promises. What he wanted to do was different from what he actually would do. Probably.

The entrance to the national park was exactly as she'd described it. The gate was one of those ones with a single thick metal bar running across the road, good for stopping cars but easy to get around by bike or on foot. It was open, the padlock or chain that had once kept it shut long gone. Sans had to leave his moped there, the rough gravel road hadn't been maintained at all in the time since it had been closed to the public and it wasn't safe for a vehicle designed more for city streets than off-roading.

Trip's Jeep apparently didn't have the same problem, as he found it at the campgrounds which were maybe another half mile straight into the forest. The campgrounds themselves were mostly just a clearing of packed dirt and pine needles that nature hadn't fully reclaimed yet. A lean-to constructed from branches and a tarp was off to one side, housing firewood and whatever sort of things some teens who hung out in the woods would want to keep out there. There were a couple of picnic tables made of grey, not quite rotten wood, and a bonfire had been built in the center of the clearing. The fire's warm glow only extended a few feet in radius from it, but it sent strange, elongated shadows flickering across the entire camp. Trip was sitting on the bench of one of the picnic tables, a cardboard pack of bottles at his side as he stared into the fire. Something dark was slumped in a pile at his feet.

Sans' foot stepped on a fallen branch, breaking it with a loud crack. "Is that you Reg? I told you I wanted to be left alone tonight," Trip called out into the darkness. He looked surprised when Sans stepped into the light, but not particularly concerned. "Oh, it's you. Want a drink?"

Sans had had speeches running through his mind since he left the house, dozens of different drafts ranging from righteous anger to disgusted frustration at his behavior. But they all kind of went out of his head in that moment, fizzling out after the words 'it's a beautiful night out.' This hadn't been the reaction he was expecting. "you just said you wanted to be left alone," he pointed out, taking a few tentative steps forward.

Trip shrugged. "That was for someone else. I can make an exception for a friend of the monster ambassador," he said dryly. He reached into the pack and pulled out a bottle, deftly uncapping it using the edge of the table for leverage. When he held out the bottle Sans could see that his arm was heavily bandaged, the kind of clumsy wrappings one might do to themselves if they had to work one-handed. "Besides, I've been wanting a chance to talk to you for the last few days."

Sans came close enough to accept the bottle. His foot brushed against the thing at Trip's feet and Sans realized it had fur. Stepping back in shock Sans' breath caught in his chest. The mangy animal was completely still, unseeing eyes staring blankly. "what the hell is that?"

Trip's expression as he gauged Sans' reaction…well he wouldn't grace it with a description. "I didn't kill it myself, if that's what you're wondering. I know a guy who works for the kill shelter in the next town over. Saved them the cost of disposing of the remains by taking it off their hands." He took a swig from his own bottle. "My collection's only been herbivores so far, you know? It had started out as a project identifying differences between members of the bovidae and cervidae families. Been meaning to branch out into other animals for a while now."

And Sans supposed it was just a coincidence that he was doing this right after what happened with that other dog. Looking at it as it was now, the differences were obvious, coarse fur, wrong color, wrong body type, and this one had folded ears rather than the ones that stood up straight. No one would mistake it for that dog. But with fur and flesh removed and all that was left was stark white bone, would a human be able to tell the difference? When Trip brought his new specimen home and showed it off to Frisk, would Frisk make the connection between when their pet disappeared and this one? Even if they knew that theirs had been a monster dog and not a normal one like he tried to let them believe when it first showed up, Sans thought they'd at least be able to see what it was Trip was trying to imply with this.

He was still watching Sans, and a small petty smile played across his face. "What? You don't like it? I thought you'd be all over this." Sans could only look at him blankly. Trip shrugged at his confusion. "Like I said, my collection's only been herbivores so far. Not a sharp tooth in the bunch. So I was pretty confused when Frisk started having nightmares about some more… predatory skulls. Until you showed up at the house. That's when I got it. Man, I don't know what you did that's got them so scared, but I've really got to thank you. Just when I was starting to get bored you made messing with the brat a lot more interesting again."

Sans' skeletal fingers gripped the bottle he'd been given tightly, bone scraping against glass _._ He had to remind himself a couple of times of his promise."you said you wanted to talk to me? talk."

Trip scoffed, shaking his head as he stood up. It was hard to ignore his height now, not quite as tall as Papyrus but with the solid mass that came from having actual muscles attached to the bones. "Hey, you're the one that started that conversation, man. Don't get mad at me for answering your question." He walked over to the lean-to and bent down to pick something up. Sans was expecting it to be a piece of firewood but was surprised when he saw the glint of metal instead. He gave the old aluminum baseball bat a few test swings. "I've got a question for you now," Trip said, lips curling into a sneer. "What the fuck did you say to my mom?"

This was not the way Sans had expected things to go at all. "your mom?"

"Yeah, you know, that time she dropped the twerp off for a sleepover? She came home having one of her breakdowns, took most of my night to calm her down." He drained the last few contents of his bottle and placed it on the edge of the picnic table. "But this wasn't one of her normal panic attacks, where she's worried about all her failures as a parent. This time she was looking to me, and it had her asking questions I'd already given her answers to. Questions I really don't like her looking too closely at." He swung the bat at the bottle, sending broken glass flying into the woods.

"You see, I like the way things are right now." He looked around, trying to find another empty bottle. "They aren't perfect, but they beat the alternatives so I like them. I like that I have the freedom to do whatever the hell I want, with very few chances of repercussions. But I know that it's a fine line I'm balancing on. It wouldn't take much to get her to start thinking maybe she should be keeping a closer eye on me. On the other side, it wouldn't take much to cause her to have another breakdown, a real one that will set her right back to the way things were before. I don't appreciate folks who come along and try and make either of those happen. So I'll ask again: what the fuck did you say to her?"

"i said you're a psychotic bastard that isn't safe to be around children or animals."

Trip let out a hollow laugh. "Funny. That's real funny." He gave up trying to find another empty bottle. Instead he walked back over to Sans, slowly tapping his palm with the bat. "Is that why you're here tonight? Because of some dog? That mutt attacked _me._ " He held up his bandaged arm for emphasis. "Messed my arm up pretty bad. Hell, I should probably be worried about rabies. There are laws about animals that attack minors you know, they would have insisted on it being put down anyway. As far as anyone's concerned I was in the right there."

"it was protecting frisk from you." He could barely get the words out around the hot, nauseous feeling in the back of his throat.

For a moment, Sans thought he saw a hint of shame on his face. "I'm not proud of that, you know," he says quietly. "I know I messed up big time. Especially since I didn't stick around to do damage control. It's going to take weeks –months, probably- to regain her trust, get things back to the way they were. But what do you want me to say? I was angry and I lost control. These things happen. Sometimes a guy just needs to let off a little _STEAM!_ "

The only warning Trip gave was the subtle motion of changing his hold on the bat into a proper batter's grip. It was enough, and Sans easily dodged the swing. Survival instincts kicked in and he grabbed at Trip with blue magic. With a flick of his wrist the teenager was sent flying. He slammed into a tree, hard enough to knock the wind out of him but not hard enough that he didn't remain standing when Sans let go again. He staggered a few steps, catching his breath. He was wary of Sans now, looking at the skeleton the way one might look at an animal that they weren't sure if it was going to bite them.

"i'm actually a little glad you made the first move there, buddy," Sans said, cracking his neck as he took another step forward. Bones started moving around the campground, their flickering shadows in the firelight making their movements seem chaotic. "it'll make things easier to explain myself if the cops get involved. then again, fighting with a monster on mt. ebott, sounds like the sort of thing that falls under our jurisdiction. that is to say, the king's judgement. you remember him right? big guy with the horns? i wonder what he'd say about the guy that thinks it's fun to torment his favorite human." That was a bluff really, there was no legal precedent for a human and monster conflict yet, and without the mountain actually being gifted to the monsters it wasn't a sure thing that they'd decide that monster laws should prevail here. Trip took the bait though, eyes wide and darting wildly as it sunk in just how badly he'd miss-stepped. With a disgruntled snort he charged towards Sans again. Swing and a miss, and this time he let Trip's own momentum work against him as he crashed into a wall of bones. "it's not just him you have to worry about though. toriel, undyne, my brother. pretty much every monster out there is going to be pretty unhappy with you for messing with their savior. lucky for you you're getting off easy. tonight you only have to deal with me."

Sans had to give credit to the guy, he was fast. Faster than Frisk had been, the times he watched them fight. Frisk was more agile, able to stop and turn quickly to get out of the way of something, but when Trip just needed to get from A to B fast he got it done. He had high dynamic visual acuity too, able to track the movements of anything Sans threw at him and account for it, finding the one spot in a hailstorm of bones that while wasn't exactly safe, gave him the footing he needed to be able to wind up and swing again. Pretty much the only way Sans was able to get a hit in was when he threw in something he couldn't compensate for because he was already moving one way and didn't have time to change course. If only getting a few hits in were enough that would be it, but he shook off every blow and took them as incentive to come back swinging harder.

Sans knew he was holding himself back, still not using every trick he had at his disposal. But needing to fight out of desperation was different from wanting to fight out of anger, and he didn't want to do something he was going to regret. Not when he'd still have to look the kid in the eye afterward. That look on their face when they begged him not to kill their brother still haunted him. So there'd be no special attacks here, real or otherwise. No blasters either, not after what Trip said. He wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of giving credit to his theories about Frisk's nightmares. Even if it were true, he wouldn't let him know it. That limited him to bones and blue magic. That really put him at a disadvantage, but he could work with it.

In Trip's favor was his weapon of choice. A baseball bat had a longer reach than a knife, and it was a lot easier to do blunt force damage to bones than to slice them open. (Why was he thinking about knives? Stop thinking about knives!) It was clear he knew how to use it too, each swing controlled and with the full force that came with years of practice. That was also his weakness though. He was used to using a bat for sport, not as a weapon, and it showed each time he lined himself up as if he were standing in the batter's box ready to hit one into centerfield. It was easy to avoid getting hit when he was like that. His form was breaking down though; his arm must have hurt terribly from the way he would wince after each miss and the pain and frustration were getting to him. His swings were becoming wilder, harder to predict, and Sans didn't think he'd be able to dodge them forever.

"you were saying a lot about not wanting to upset your mom back there," Sans thought aloud as he watched Trip navigate the field of bones. Just because he'd limited himself on what he'd use didn't mean he wouldn't be creative in using them. Right then Trip was moving through an invisible bone maze, walls of light blue bones shooting up inches from his face every time he got too close. The idea was courtesy of his brother, but using them this way was all him. It was something he wouldn't have been able to do in a narrow space like the hall before the king's throne room, for instance, and it forced Trip to move slowly to avoid charging head on into a wall. "those are some good intentions, though i can't really say to what end, oh pal." Huh, so the guy _could_ recognize a pun when he heard it, judging by the particularly vehement look he gave Sans at the end of that sentence. "what i didn't hear was any sort of regret over everything you've done to frisk. so tell me, do you even care about the kid, at all?"

Trip grimaced as he took a particularly bad hit in the shoulder but shook it off. "Of course I care. They're my family." The way he said it was automatic and possessory, less like he had actually thought about it and more like he just wanted to establish ownership. He swung at a bone wall, causing them to disappear from the field without taking any damage himself. That's another thing the bat had an advantage in over a knife- it was possible for him to clear obstacles that way. A knife would take too long individually cutting each bone, and you'd have to get close enough to even reach them, risking getting hit. (Stop thinking about knives already!)

"They're the ones that don't care about us. Breaking Mom's heart every time they talk about that monster they're calling 'Mom,' and how excited they are for the next time they'll go see everyone. Did they tell you about that?" Trip scoffs at his own question. "Of course they didn't. They probably don't even know about it. There's no way Mom would let them see how much she's hurting over something that makes them happy. But she never has a problem showing that side around me, because I'm older and I'm supposed to be able to handle that kind of stuff."

"don't you dare try and turn this around on the kid," Sans shot back. "they're going through the exact same things you are, except they also have to deal with you on top of it. if things with your mom are half as bad as you claim they are, you should be trying to protect them from it, not taking it out on them. because newsflash: you **are** the older brother here, and older brothers are supposed to take care of their siblings."

"I shouldn't have to!" Trip howled, and for an instant, Sans could see the child this lanky teenager had once been. The one that had lost one parent and watched the other one disappear inside herself because of it, there but not there. The one that had been old enough to recognize the wrongness of his own situation, but wasn't old enough to know how to fix it, or to see that fixing it wasn't something he could do on his own. That child had been the one to first lash out at Frisk, probably not for anything the kid had actually done, but because they were there and an easy target. And maybe hurting them didn't do anything to actually make him feel better, but at least it let him feel like he had some power when he was feeling powerless, so he kept doing it. It got easier and easier to hurt them over time, and eventually he stopped remembering that hurting them had never been his actual goal, that it had just been a makeshift solution to an impossible problem. That was the person standing before him now, there in an instant and gone again with the swing of a bat. And a second, and a third, half berserker rage half childish tantrum as he kept trying to hit Sans and missing.

Sans needed him to get back, to get some space between them again. He grabbed Trip with blue magic and slammed him into the trees again. And again. The third time he heard something crack. He immediately let go, worried that he'd broken his promise and done more than he'd intended to hurt him. Trip fell to the ground, clutching his already injured arm. Sans could see that it was broken, a kink to it that made the arm look wrong. The shoulder looked off too, and from his shuddered breathing Sans thought he probably had a few cracked ribs as well. Despite this, Trip still hadn't let go of the bat, gripping it tightly in the injured hand through the pain. Trip was still glaring at him, and Sans readied himself for his opponent to get up and come at him again, but it never came.

"It's all coming undone, isn't it?" Trip asked bitterly. Although there was still anger in his eyes, they were unfocused and distant. "Everything I've done to patch up this mess Dad left behind? I _just_ needed her to hold it together a little longer, a few more months at least. Then I'd be eighteen. I'm ahead in school so I could graduate early if I wanted to. I'd be able to get out of here and never look back. Let it be the twerp's turn for once to put the pieces back together when she inevitably falls apart again. Except that's not what's going to happen, is it? Now that they've got you monsters to turn to when things get bad, they're going to run to you first chance they get. Never mind that the brat's just making the problem worse by preferring the company of things that aren't even human to their own flesh and blood."

Panting, Sans dropped to the ground himself. He needed a rest after that. "maybe you're right, maybe not," he told him. "it does sound like your mom needs more help in taking care of you guys than she's been getting, and like you said, that responsibility shouldn't fall on you." Well, him specifically, but he wouldn't go into that distinction. "but from what i've seen she's a lot stronger than you give her credit for, and the thing that really drives frisk away, makes them go to us instead of her, is you."

Trip rolled his eyes at this, still holding on to a vestige his aloof teenager attitude despite the pain and the fear and the exhaustion. Even after what could almost be called a breakthrough, this guy was still refusing to acknowledge that the things he'd done to Frisk were wrong. It made Sans want to dunk the guy even harder, if he wasn't certain that it would break Trip for real. He was barely hanging on as it was. Instead he kept talking. "you know, there's something i had never been able to understand about frisk, about their ability to make different choices. this isn't just about the timeline stuff, as best i can tell that's just pure determination." Trip just stared blankly, not really understanding what he was talking about. Good. He didn't want to think about what a guy like this would do if they knew about determination. "what i'm talking about is how when facing the same situation they've already been through before, they somehow still had the option to choose to do something different. most folks if they were given the chance wouldn't be able to say the same. even if they knew it's going to have the same result, they will always react to the world around them the same way over and over again. toriel will always care for a lost child; even if it means them leaving will break her heart. papyrus will get mad whenever i make a hilarious joke; even though he knows his reactions are a joke in themselves. you'll always blame others for your problems and take it out on the kid. and me? well, whenever i meet a monster, a real monster, not like what you humans had decided to call us just for being different from you…

" **i make sure they can never hurt anyone i care about again."** Sans had to admit he probably enjoyed the fear on Trip's face at that point a little too much. He thought Trip might have tried to run away if he could, but all he could manage was to scrape along the ground a little to push himself further away from Sans' empty staring eyes. He laughed inwardly at that.

"i'm not saying people can't change, but that's a process that takes time, and even if it does happen, changing something that's at the core of their soul, they aren't the same person they were when they started out. but frisk isn't like that. there was never one clear choice for them, they always had the option to change how they reacted to things, to go from being merciful to cutting down anything that got in their way, and then go back to merciful on a whim. so where did that ability to choose to do something different come from? well, funny enough, after seeing the way you treat them, i think it came from you.

Sans got up again, finding one last reserve of energy to make his speech. He was definitely going to sleep for as long as he wanted after this. He didn't care how much Papyrus complained about him being lazy, he'd earned it. "see, siblings can be many things for each other. they can be playmates, companions, caretakers, and most importantly they are each other's biggest influence. they can strive to be someone the other admires and aspires to be like, or they can be an example of exactly what not to do if they wish to be something better. problem is, frisk still doesn't know which they want you to be for them. because even though as far as i can see you're a god-awful person, they grew up watching you, and know your good points just as well as your bad. they probably went through a couple different phases trying to figure out what kind of influence you'd have on them -very painful phases, for them and the rest of us- to get us to where we are now. but being back around you, it's starting to look like they're going to end up right back where they started. we've all come too far to let that happen, so i'm going to be the one to make the call on what your influence will be for them."

"Yeah? And what's that?" Sans could tell that he was trying to sound like he didn't care, but the crack in his voice gave him away. Time for one last judgment, here in these woods whose trees stood like pillars, golden light from the campfire flickering dimly. He thought on everything he'd come to understand about Trip. Like Frisk had warned, the person before him was tough, physically speaking anyway. His LV was twisted and wrong, a level of violence raised through sadism and disassociation rather than straightforward killing. But it still wasn't as high as it could be, and there was always only one choice he could make in situations like this.

"nothing," Sans said with a smile. "that's what your influence on frisk is going to be from now on. literally nothing. you are not going to be a part of their life anymore. they are not going to see you, not going to live under the same roof as you. they might hear things about you, whatever news your mother chooses to share when she visits them if she doesn't have the sense to cut ties with you as well, but you will never speak with them again unless it's of their own choice and i'm there to watch out for them. because you may have lost all right to call yourself their brother, but frisk still deserves a brother that actually cares about them."

"and if you don't listen to what i'm telling you now, i'll make sure you don't even get to live long enough to regret it." Sans' eyes flashed a brilliant blue in emphasis before he turned to walk away. Trip was still lying on the ground, hunched over in pain, and he probably wouldn't be able to muster up enough energy to try standing until long after Sans had left. There was so much more he wanted to say, about what a sick person he was, about how he needed to actually reflect on all the hurt he's caused, about how he should give that damn dog a proper burial and not turn it some specimen. But he didn't think anything he would say was going to cause some sort of revelation tonight, and what he wanted most of all was to go home, make sure Toriel had handled the situation there alright, and get some rest. A nice, dreamless sleep where when he woke up the next day everything will be looking brighter. He thought he deserved that much.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Last one of these, no real notes this time, just a lot of thanks and apologies. The apologies are for getting this out so late. It had been my intention to get this last chapter out by the end of March, but a lot of things got in the way and even once things had settled down it still took much longer than I thought it would to get this chapter to a point where I was ready to share it.**

 **As for the thanks, there's my usual shout out to everyone who's reviewed, followed or favorited this story since the last chapter came out, but I also want to thank all the readers overall, from the people who have been here since the beginning to those that maybe only just discovered this story weeks or months after this last chapter came out. Putting all this together to share with you has been such a pleasure over the last six months, and I wouldn't trade the time I've spent on it for anything. I can only encourage you all to go out and do the same.**

 **Carry on.**

Two weeks. Two weeks and nothing. Trip hadn't been charged with anything, probably hadn't even had to speak with a police officer, and was living his life as normal, albeit walking around with his broken arm in a cast and a sling. If it wasn't for that arm it would almost look like that night never happened. From what Sans had heard Trip was telling people he'd gotten into an accident riding his bike out in the woods, which Sans wasn't going to dispute. The people that mattered knew what really happened anyway. The plus side to all that was that Sans wasn't being charged with anything either, but it was still infuriating to think that there wouldn't be some sort of greater systemic punishment for him. Then again, if there had been anything that the system would do to punish him in the first place, things wouldn't have gotten as bad as they did to begin with, would they? There just didn't seem to be anything already in the books for dealing with Trip's specific brand of cruelty.

The one good thing to come out of this though was that Frisk was finally living with Toriel and the monsters the way it should have been. Susan had been horrified over the events of that night, and even she had conceded that Frisk would be better off living separately from them while she figured out how exactly she'd go about disciplining her son. Sans hadn't been there for that particular conversation, but he had a suspicion that the reason why Toriel wasn't demanding Trip face criminal charges was because the two women had negotiated it that way. Something like, Susan would allow Frisk to live with the monsters, officially making Toriel their legal guardian, and in exchange Susan would be given the chance to deal with her son as she saw fit, keeping it out of the courts and protecting him from any further monster retaliations. It wasn't a great deal and he didn't like it, but Sans could see why Toriel might agree to something like that. Sometimes the people in charge had to make difficult compromises to get what was most important to them. And Frisk was definitely worth it.

It had started with Asgore announcing that the modest living quarters that were part of the monster embassy being built would be ready to move in by the end of the month. It was practically a bachelor pad, just a space for him to rest when he wasn't working, but anything was probably better than Toriel looking at him like she smelled something rotten every time he spoke to her. That had set the others into motion looking into places for themselves. Being with everyone was great, but the house they were living in wasn't meant for six people, seven now with Frisk in the mix, and they could use some space. Undyne was surprisingly enthusiastic about a place she'd found with a fancy induction cooktop, saying it was almost as good as fire magic, but with even less chance of anything burning down no matter how passionate her cooking got. Though she may have just been enthusiastic about her roommate, a certain dinosaur lady who started blushing every time Undyne mentioned how great it would be for them to get some alone time together. When Papyrus pointed out that it wouldn't exactly be alone time if they were together, that just made Undyne laugh hysterically, confusing the poor skeleton even more.

As for the skeleton brothers, it was frustrating. Papyrus would go through a lot of effort house hunting, spending hours going over advertisements and narrowing down likely candidates. But whenever he actually dragged Sans along to take a look at a place in person, Papyrus would always find something wrong with it that he hadn't previously considered. It was usually something small that shouldn't be that important, but Papyrus would still insist that it was a deal breaker and he'd have to start over from scratch. Since Papyrus seemed to be enjoying the process Sans didn't mind how he chose to spend his time, but he wished Paps wouldn't make him come along for the ritual of inspecting and subsequently rejecting each place they looked at. It was time he could have better spent slacking off.

The two of them were just getting back after one of those trips to look at a place one afternoon. Sans could hear voices talking in the kitchen. It smelled like coffee and cinnamon. He was about to walk in and see what was cooking when he made out the words, "I still believe he can be a good person."

"HELLO, YOUR MAJESTY! HELLO, FRISK'S HUMAN MOTHER!" Papyrus greeted the two women, maneuvering himself around Sans when he froze in the doorway. They were sitting at the kitchen table, lingering over cups of coffee. Two empty plates were left in front of them and a pie was sitting on the counter.

"Ah, just 'Susan' is fine," she corrected politely. When her eyes fell on Sans she immediately turned away nervously. Toriel cleared her throat and gave him a disapproving frown. Shit, was he glaring at her? Sans forced himself to look away, bringing his face back to a more neutral expression before turning back to the women.

"How was the house hunting?" Toriel asked Papyrus. The skeleton gave an exaggerated sigh.

"UNSUCCESSFUL, I'M AFRAID," he admitted disappointedly. "THE KITCHEN SINK WAS TOO LOW. NOT ENOUGH ROOM FOR STORING BONES UNDER IT." Susan gave a confused glance at the very normal sized sink in this kitchen and Sans could tell immediately that she was wondering if there had been something unusual about the one at the place they'd looked at. There wasn't. This sink complaint was Papyrus' feeblest excuse yet. There had been a perfectly good broom closet in the place they had looked at that he could use for storage, and even if he insisted on keeping them under the sink, there was no reason he couldn't increase the height himself like he had at their old place. "I'M AFRAID MY BROTHER AND I WILL JUST HAVE TO CONTINUE LIVING HERE WITH YOU AND FRISK UNTIL WE FIND A PLACE THAT MEETS ALL OF MY STANDARDS."

Oh. So that was the game he was playing at. "yeah, i thought that last place was all right," Sans shrugged, stepping up to his brother's defense. "but when i heard that the building management had a strict 'no pets' policy, i realized that would mean no pet rocks either, so i said no condo."

Toriel giggled at that. "I think that's perfectly fine. It's good to have you two around to be apartment of our lives," she answered, eyes shining bright. Sans chuckled back, which got her giggling again, which then turned into outright laughter. Susan allowed her lips to curve up gently at their rapport, and... Geez, Sans could see what Frisk had meant about her smile. The look in her eyes was a thousand miles away, like she was only smiling because she recognized the situation called for it, not because she felt like it. There was no comparing it to the one she'd had in those old photographs he'd seen at their house. It was surprising he'd missed that. Then again, this was probably the first time he'd seen her smile in person.

Papyrus narrowed his eyes unamused. "THAT REMINDS ME. I WAS GOING TO FEED YOUR ROCK BEFORE WE LEFT TO MEET FRISK FOR THE NICE CREAM SOCIAL!" He started to leave the kitchen but stopped one last time. "ARE YOU GOING TO COME TOO, FRISK'S SUSAN?"

Susan stood up from the kitchen table, letting the name issue slide. "Not today I'm afraid. I've got somewhere I need to be soon. I'm just here because Toriel invited me to have coffee with her." Papyrus started to look a little disappointed. "But I will be there for Storytime at the library this weekend. You'll be there again too, right?" Collaborating with the library's existing community outreach programs to make them more monster-inclusive had been Susan's idea, her first major contribution to her younger child's endeavors. She had started working fewer extra shifts lately so that she'd have time to help out with the other human volunteers. Even if she was still allowed to visit Frisk, volunteering with the embassy gave her more opportunities to see them than scheduling a visit, and it turned out she had a talent for coordinating schedules and keeping track of the progress of multiple projects at once. Sans couldn't even begin to comprehend something that practical and boring, but he knew things had started running a lot smoother since she got involved.

"NYEH HEH HEH, I WOULDN'T MISS IT," Papyrus beamed before exiting the kitchen, taking the stairs two at a time to go to their shared room where Rocky was kept in his cardboard box. If the two of them were going to be sticking around, maybe one of them could take over one of the other bedrooms when the girls left. The extra quality time with his brother was great, but Sans would appreciate his sleep schedule being under less strict scrutiny again.

"Well then, I really should be going," Susan said as she slid a purse over her shoulder. "Thank you again for the coffee and pie, Toriel. It was really good to be able to talk to you about…all this. I'll see you around." Her mouth narrowed into a tight line when she turned to Sans still in the doorway. At first it wasn't clear if it was in anger or in fear, until Sans started to move out of her way. The moment he took a step Sans could see her whole body tense, only relaxing a little as she realized he wasn't moving towards her. She walked quickly out the kitchen, shamefully trying not to make eye contact with the skeleton when her path got to its closest point to him.

After she'd left Toriel rose to clear the dirty dishes. Sans sidled over to the pie, hoping to sneak a slice before they spoiled their dinners with nice cream later. "You could stand to be nicer to her, you know," Toriel said from the sink, her tone cold and clipped and even. She was using her "mom" voice on him, or maybe it was her "queen" voice, they were pretty similar when it came to a commanding presence and sometimes he couldn't tell the difference.

"it's not like i did anything to her," Sans defended himself as he cut a slice off of the pie, immediately regretting his words. That kind of excuse sounded like the sort of thing _he_ might say. Like not doing something to someone directly made it okay that you did other things that you knew had hurt them. Sans lifted his piece of pie out of the tin and began eating it straight out of hand, not bothering with a plate. "but you're right. i'll try." It wasn't like he even really resented Frisk's mother for any of this. At least she obviously felt bad about what had happened, and was trying to make things right in her own way. That was more than he could say about some people. But still… "i understand not wanting to cut her off completely, she's still frisk's family after all. but the two of you have both been getting pretty chummy, and what i don't get is how you can be cool with her. by allowing frisk to stay with us she's basically choosing that psychopath over them. don't get me wrong, i'm glad the kid's with us now, but what kind of parent does that?"

"It isn't like that," Toriel corrected quickly. She moved over to dry her paws on a dishcloth. "Frisk isn't Susan's only child that she's trying to do right by. It's not about choosing one over the other; it's about doing what's best for both of them. Frisk has a safe place here with us, she knows that, and knowing that gives her the support she needs to do whatever she needs to to do right by both of them." Sans was skeptical, but he was starting to see why Toriel might have that opinion on the matter. She certainly knew the difficulties of being a parent a lot better than he did. "Do you know why Susan couldn't make it to today's event?"

"i just figured she had to work. that's what it's usually been with her isn't it?" Or she was staying away because she was trying to avoid Sans and knew he'd be there. The way she was so quick to leave when he showed up sure supported that theory. Yeah, he really should at least let her know that he didn't blame her for any of this.

Toriel shook her head. "She's going to family counseling with Trip." That surprised him. "It seems she had already been seeing a therapist on her own for several years now, and has insisted on her son seeing one as well after what happened, but this will be their first session together. She would have liked Frisk to be a part of it as well, but…" Yeah, no way he was letting Frisk be in the same room as him, even with others supervising. Toriel correctly read that from his face and carried on. "Maybe someday later on, if they're willing. My point is that she doesn't want to forsake either of them, and in my opinion she shouldn't have to."

"do you really think it'll do any good? this counseling thing?" Sans asked, still unsure how he felt about it. Counseling, it sounded so normal, practical, inadequate. It wasn't really a punishment, it was barely a treatment for the real problem, but it was something that showed that she was trying to address the issues at least. "do you think it will be enough to make him a good person?"

If Toriel recognized that he was referring back to the conversation he overheard between the two of them, she didn't show it. "I honestly do not know," she conceded with a sigh. "At the very least it's a starting point that will give Susan a better idea what she should do. It could be that his problems are too deep set to expect any real change in him, but that doesn't mean she shouldn't try. A mother isn't going to just stop loving one of her children, no matter what they do."

The mournful look on Toriel's face told Sans she wasn't only thinking of Frisk and Trip as she said that. Sans thought it best to drop the subject for now. He still wasn't sure what to think of this development. His main problem with Trip had always been a lack of reflection on his actions. Any regret he'd ever shown in front of Sans had always been for the consequences of his actions that affected himself, not how he'd hurt anyone else around him, Frisk in particular. If seeing a therapist could change that he probably _would_ be a good person. Not great, but decent, a solid C+ at least. Whether or not it would actually have that effect remained to be seen. After everything that happened, falling back to a wait and see approach seemed like a big step backwards, but the decision was out of his hands. Trip was being given a second chance while being kept on a short leash, and he'd just have to hope that it played out. At least this time, if it ever looked like Trip was going to step out of line, Sans thought he'd be prepared to act on it much sooner than he had before.

"SANS, YOUR MAJESTY, WE SHOULD LEAVE FOR FRISK'S SCHOOL SOON," Papyrus announced as he returned from upstairs. The taller skeleton was positively giddy with excitement, nyeh-ing softly as he bobbed up and down. "WE DON'T WANT TO BE LATE FOR THE FESTIVITIES!"

"There's no rush Papyrus," Toriel chided gently, though she started to gather her things to head out as well. "I doubt they'd run out of nice cream if we were a few minutes late."

"IT'S NOT THE NICE CREAM THAT I'M WORRIED ABOUT," Papyrus said. He gave a confident pose. "AS MASCOT TO THE MONSTER EMBASSY, IT IS MY DUTY TO ENSURE THERE IS AN APPROPRIATE LEVEL OF SOCIALBILITY AT THIS NICE CREAM SOCIAL FROM START TO FINISH! I CANNOT DO THAT IF WE ARE LATE."

"then i guess we better make like a banana and split," Sans winked, brushing crumbs off his hands. Papyrus groaned, but seemed to be willing to let it slide so long as he got moving. The three of them headed out for the school.

It always surprised Sans how populated Frisk's school was. He understood Ebott to be a small town by human standards; its biggest draw prior to the monsters' return had been tourism from people who came to visit the nearby park, and given the history of the mountain at its center, even that wasn't as good as it should have been. Things had certainly picked up with the monsters' arrival, but overall the town still had a quaint, isolated air to it, like Snowdin if you multiplied its population by a couple hundred. That was the real difference between human and monster communities; there were just a lot more humans out there than monsters. That was a perfectly reasonable explanation for why there were so many children, but it still caught Sans off guard every time to see so many of them gathered in one place.

The schoolyard was practically buzzing with activity as families of all races had shown up. The children were running around already hyper over the idea of sugary treats while the parents either mingled or helped set up. Undyne was surrounded by a cluster of children who seemed awestruck by her. Another group had started up a game of shadow tag, probably out of deference to the armless Monster Kid. The Nice Cream Guy had boxes and boxes of frozen treats that he was carting out of a truck and setting out at a table for easier access once things got started. A sound system was set up not too far away, Napstablook running the equipment. They had asked him to dj, but the ghost was too shy to share any of his own remixes in front of a crowd so instead he'd just offered to create a playlist of monster music for the party. There were even a few teenagers around, probably dragged along by family. Sans noticed Kelly and her friend in a corner by the fence, chatting with Bratty and Catty, who'd probably just shown up for the free nice cream.

"I don't see Frisk anywhere," Toriel noted with concern as she scanned the yard. That was the one thing missing from the scene. Although the ambassador had spent weeks putting all this together, Frisk was nowhere to be seen.

"they gotta be here somewhere," Sans said. It was too soon to be really concerned. There were plenty of places Frisk could be on the school grounds and there was still time before the social was officially supposed to start.

"You're right, I suppose we should –UNDYNE! Put down those children at once!" Toriel's train of thought was interrupted when she noticed the former guardswoman. Undyne had been in the middle of showing off her strength and looked like she was trying for a new personal record, which wouldn't have been a problem if it weren't for the method she was going about it. Undyne seemed to take a quantity over quality approach to her workout activities, so she'd gathered up as many of the youngest, smallest children that she could find and had convinced them all to bunch together in a lump which she'd somehow managed to lift over her head. From the shrieking laughter coming from the lump Sans doubted any of the kids had a problem with this, but judging by the worried looks on a few parents' faces, they should probably put a stop to it before anyone got hurt. Toriel clucked her tongue irritably. "I'll handle this. Would you boys go find Frisk please?"

"you got it tor," Sans assured her before she went over to defuse the situation. Undyne apparently hadn't heard the demand to stop what she was doing, laughing riotously along with the children. "guess we better start looking around," Sans said. He waited for Papyrus to start walking and shuffled after him, but was surprised when Papyrus stopped suddenly. "what's the problem, bro?"

"YOU KNOW, I THINK WE'D FIND THEM A LOT FASTER IF WE SPLIT UP. THAT WAY WE'D COVER MORE GROUND," Papyrus pointed out.

"nah, i'd probably just slack off if you left me to my own devices. better if we stick together so you can be sure i'm actually looking for them."

"SANS." Uh-oh. That voice again. What had he done to bother him this time? Papyrus turned to face his brother. "YOU CAN'T KEEP AVOIDING THEM FOREVER."

Sans' smile twitched uncomfortably. "what are you talking about, bro? i'm not avoiding them, we live together. i'm with them all the time."

"YOU'RE AVOIDING BEING ALONE WITH THEM." Papyrus said bluntly. Sans wanted to protest, say that he had it wrong…but that was exactly right. Maybe he wasn't doing it consciously, but there hadn't been a single moment where it was just him and Frisk since he first brought them back to the house that night. At home, with everyone around, it was natural for there to always be someone else there to act as a buffer between them. There was always some excuse for why he couldn't do something that would be just the two of them. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT CAUSED IT, BUT YOU HAVE AND IT'S HURTING FRISK AND YOU NEED TO STOP."

Sans didn't know what to say. Even though he knew what Papyrus was saying was right, that by avoiding Frisk he was only letting the issue on his mind fester, he just wasn't ready to have that conversation yet. "you know, me finding frisk first isn't guaranteed to fix anything," he finally blurted out when his brother's knowing stare got unbearable. "i could just find them and bring them back without saying anything."

"THAT'S FINE," Papyrus beamed beatifically. "JUST MAKING AN EFFORT TO FIND THEM IS GOING TO BE A BIG STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. THEY NEED TO KNOW THAT DESPITE WHATEVER'S GOING ON BETWEEN YOU TWO YOU'RE STILL GOING TO BE THERE FOR THEM. DON'T WORRY. I HAVE ONLY GOOD FEELINGS ABOUT THIS." With that ominous guarantee Papyrus ran off, presumably to at least make his own efforts to find the kid.

Resigned to following his brother's orders, Sans began wandering the school proper, checking classrooms and hallways for signs of life. It was hard to explain the reason he'd been so distant with the kid in the last few weeks. Mostly it boiled down to what they had said that night, those three words they had thrown at his face knowing that he'd understand exactly where they'd come from. Knowing that at some point in time that must have happened was one thing, but it was something more than that. Because for Frisk to have been worried that he would do something like that, they would have had to have known that he was even capable of such a thing in the first place. And despite how much it hurt to think about, it would have taken a lot more than just that to get him to show what he could do. That was what was really gnawing at him, and it felt like he wouldn't be free of that feeling until he knew everything that had happened. Given the opportunity, he knew he wouldn't be able to stop himself from asking about it. At the same time though, he didn't want to have his worst suspicions be confirmed. So, he'd been avoiding giving himself an opening to confront them, delaying on the inevitable conversation he knew they'd have to have.

But now he was being forced to face the situation, unless he found a way to prolong it. That shouldn't be too hard; procrastinating was a way of life for him after all. He just had to not be the one to find Frisk…and there they were. The kid was sitting on a bench outside of the main office, staring blankly at a fixed spot in space. They seemed deep in thought; they hadn't noticed Sans standing there yet. It would be easy to walk away and pretend he hadn't seen them. "hey." Well thanks, mouth. Frisk looked up in surprise before nodding and giving a small smile in acknowledgement. They scooted over a little on the bench to make room for him to join them, but didn't make any motion towards leaving. Sans cleared his throat nervously. "you know, it's a beautiful day out. the sun is shining, a whole bunch of folks are outside waiting for you, shouldn't you be out there getting this party started?"

"In a bit," Frisk answered softly, eyes focused on the spot of empty air again. Sans waited for a moment, rocking back and forth on his heels as he waited. When Frisk still didn't move, he sat down on the bench with them. It was another moment longer before they spoke. "What do you know about saving and resetting?"

Here we go. "a lot less than you, i can say that much," Sans replied with a nervous chuckle. "i know other versions of what happened underground exist, that a specific period of time was repeating over and over but with different outcomes, and i've got a pretty good guess of what those timelines were like, but the how or why of it never made sense to me. so, why don't you fill me in?"

Frisk gives an understanding nod. "I don't really get why I can do it either, but I can at least explain how it works when I do it." Frisk sighed deeply, collecting their thoughts. "So, there are two points in time that matter: the save and the reset. When the save is can be changed, it's basically whenever I most recently focused on my determination. I can go back to that moment as many times as I want, or as many as I need to if I was fighting a really strong enemy and kept dying. But there's a physical part to it too; it only works in specific places. I had never been able to find a save point after I got back to the surface." Sans nodded, following along. This all fit what he'd theoretically known about determination so far. "And I can't go back to an old save once I've made a new one. If I want to go back further, I'd have to reset. The reset is the moment right after I first fell into the underground. If I want to change something, and I've already saved since it happened, my only option is to reset and start over from there.

"It took me awhile to really understand what was happening when I saved. I just knew that I had to get back home, that Mom would be so upset if I never came home again. That's what was driving me forward my first time through. And when Toriel tried to keep me from leaving, said she wouldn't let me pass unless I could show I could take care of myself outside the ruins, I fought. I thought she'd back down if I weakened her enough, but I guess I hit too hard and…" Sans didn't need them to finish the thought. Their expression and his own imagination filled in the blanks. It actually made a lot of sense that they'd done it on accident, attacking enough to make a monster lose the will to fight usually worked in most cases. There were only a few specific instances he could think of where it would backfire. On the first try, they wouldn't know any better. "I didn't realize I could have used my save to try and find another way until it was too late to go back. She was the only one I killed that first time, but that one life had raised my LV so much. When I left the underground I felt stronger, more determined. It felt like I could do anything, even stand up to Trip and make him stop bullying me."

"and did you?"

"At first," Frisk nodded. "He backed down for a little while, mostly because he was surprised I was actually fighting back for once instead of just letting him have his way. But he didn't like that he was losing power over me, so he started to use more force to keep me in line. One day, he came home absolutely furious over something, I don't know what, a fight with his girlfriend I think. Normally when he was that mad over something I'd try and stay out of his way, lock myself in the laundry room or something until he'd cooled off or Mom got home. But I thought I was strong enough to handle him." Frisk paused for a moment, their face contorting painfully at the memory, like they could still feel every hit. "It turned out that physical fights are a lot different from magic ones. In the end he's still so much bigger than me and I'm just a kid. It was… really bad. When I got home from the emergency room there was this voicemail on my phone. It was you and Papyrus, talking about how Undyne had taken over and what changes she made after I left. That was when I first realized that I could reset, go all the way back to when I first fell through the underground. And if I tried again, I could get even stronger and maybe this time I'd be able to stop him from hurting me.

"The next few times I went through I was determined to raise my LV with as few casualties as possible. Undyne seemed like an obvious first choice. Back then I didn't know how nice she really was, she was just the angry fish lady that chased me around with spears. I thought she was a bully like Trip, so some part of me may have even thought she deserved it. The next time, Mettaton. He had been the last monster I fought before Asgore so I figured he'd be the one to grant the most EXP." Sans wanted to ask about Asgore, wouldn't he have been a better choice in that case? Or were they already counting him in all this, since he was going to die either way? But Frisk kept going. "Once it became clear that taking just one life wouldn't be enough to get the numbers I needed, I started experimenting. Again and again I went back and tried to raise my LV up just a little more -though I was still trying to kill as few monsters as possible- then see if it would be enough for me to win against Trip. That fight always ended up happening, the one where he would come home in a rage and beat me up. The exact date of it would change but it always happened eventually. Each time I was able to last a little longer, even managed to get in a few hits myself that I wouldn't have been able to do before. But the more I fought back the harder he'd hit to make sure I'd stay down. The outcome of that fight was just getting worse and worse, but the fact that I had made even a little progress promised victory if I just stayed determined, went back and tried again."

"so just how many resets were there?" Sans asked, not sure he really wanted the answer. It wouldn't really make a difference to know how many times he'd been through that loop, either way he hated knowing it happened.

Frisk shrugged, unsure. "At least a couple dozen," they admitted. That was a much higher number than he expected. He knew there was only so much LV they could have earned underground, and the resets they'd already described counted for almost half of it. "There were a lot of times where I reset early, to see if I could come up with a more efficient combination of kills to get my LV up, and there were a few times I'd go to the surface with the same LV as the last time but more EXP, to see if it made a difference when I fought Trip. I don't think it did, but it was good practice anyway."

"and papyrus? What about when you first killed him?" Sans asked, morbid fascination getting the better of him. He didn't want to hear this, didn't want to be hearing any of this, but he felt like he needed to understand, and he couldn't stop any of it even if he wanted to.

Frisk's brows wrinkled, like they knew this question would come. "Papyrus…I held off on Papyrus for a long time. He was so nice, and he was always cheering me on and believing in me. Even though I knew he'd probably be a better source for EXP than some of the other monsters I killed, I left him alone because I liked having him around. And you, you cared about him so much. I didn't want to take that away." Frisk balled their hands into tiny fists, and their voice took on a resentful edge. "But then I did. I don't remember which reset it was when my feelings about you and Papyrus changed, but suddenly I wanted to take that relationship that you two had and watch as it turned to dust. Because seeing the two of you together and how much you cared about each other made me sick whenever I thought about what I had waiting for me when I got home." Sans wasn't sure if he felt anger or pity for the child. Thinking about them trying and failing and trying again to stand up to that bastard, well, Sans could understand them getting frustrated and redirecting that anger at someone else.

Frisk's voice kept its bitter tone as they described the next part. "You called me a dirty brother killer after that, and I guess I was. Or at least I wanted to be. It's probably what I would have done if I could actually beat him. But whatever I did he was still stronger than me, and he'd use more and more force each time to prove it. Each time I'd end up hurt a little worse, and then there'd be another phone call from you, and your threats not to come back felt like a challenge. Since I couldn't win against him, I started focusing my anger at Papyrus. At one point I actually returned to my save before my fight with him over and over, just so I could watch him die again." Scratch that, anger was definitely the stronger of the two emotions. They had put him, -put Papyrus- through something like that, all out of some petty jealous of what they had? Sans had to fight down an urge to lash out at Frisk. Thankfully the child didn't seem to notice as they'd shut their eyes tight against the memory. They were speaking faster now, desperate to get everything they had to say out in the open so they wouldn't have to hold on to it any longer. "I got the idea from… someone else, and it sounds _sick_ when I think about it now, but at that point I was repeating my own hellish cycle over and over and it felt good to pass that suffering on to someone else, even if they wouldn't remember it. Each time I'd make it to the judgement hall though, the look you'd give me just filled me with something I can't really describe. There was a lot of disgust, I hated myself knowing what I had done and was going to keep doing, but also this seething anger at you, for watching what I was doing, judging me for it, but not caring about why I was doing it or trying to stop me. You had said Toriel asked you to take care of me so why weren't you doing anything? And there was a little voice, way at the back of my head, asking 'what's it going to take for him to actually _do_ something?'"

Frisk opened their eyes again, and they spoke next with a cold air. "That voice got louder with each monster I killed, another whisper for each EXP earned. I finally stopped even pretending that I was only going to kill the monsters I had to, to gain more LV than I had the last time I'd been through. I started killing all of them, everyone that I came across. Then, I started actively seeking them out. The towns were evacuated. Undyne tried to stop me, but I wasn't going to let anything get in the way of me getting the power I needed. I was hated, feared, but I didn't care. Monsters kept saying I was going to destroy everything. I suppose from their perspective they were right, but to me it wasn't about them; it was about going home and finally making the endless cycle stop. If I went back with as much LV as possible I'd either finally stop Trip from ever hurting me again, or he'd end up killing me because I had finally pushed him too far. Kill or be killed. Either way there'd be no point in ever resetting again because there wouldn't be anything more I could do. And then you were there, waiting for me in the hall."

"that's enough." Sans got up, pacing a bit. This was all too much to handle at once. "i don't want to hear this part. i don't want to hear about how you-"

"I lost!" Frisk exclaimed, voice breaking. Sans stopped pacing. That hadn't been what he expected to hear. He could see that they were crying now, though he couldn't say for sure when that started. "I was never able to win against you. I don't really know how many times I tried. You were keeping count at first, however it was you do that, but I stopped paying attention way before you did and all I wanted was to get back into the fight. I tried to memorize your attack pattern, be ready for whatever came next, but I'd forget something or not react quick enough or make some stupid mistake that would end up sending me back to my save point. I had determination, so I knew I'd be able to keep trying as long as it took until I got it right, but after what felt like it had probably been days or weeks or months of dying and returning and dying again I started to…I don't know, question my resolve? I was still determined, but I realized just how much what I was determined to do had changed. Starting out, all I had wanted was to go home, back to my mom. Then, I was trying to be strong enough to be able to stand up to Trip. When it started to look like just standing up to him wouldn't be enough to keep him from hurting me for long, my goals got darker and darker. My willingness to hurt others had grown further than just hurting people who I thought deserved it, or just what I could justify to achieve a means. I was going to hurt anyone and everyone that got in my way, and for what? At one point in our fight you said there was no way I would ever be happy. I think you meant that I'd never be satisfied, but that was more true than you knew. What was I going to do if I finally succeeded in winning against Trip when I left? I couldn't see any possible outcome of all this that wouldn't end with me just carrying on hurting people because it was all I could do at that point. There was no way that I would ever be happy with the path I'd chosen.

"So I reset, one last time. It may not have been the most determined thing I could do, to give up when I was so close to the end, but my goals had changed again. If no matter what I was going to be unhappy when I left the underground, then the least I could do is make sure not to hurt anyone else when I left." Frisk gave a small, self-depreciating laugh. "It's weird to think about how much pain I could have avoided if I tried that in the first place."

"frisk, i…" Sans started to say. "come here, buddy." He reached out a hand to the child but they shied away, eyes wide as they watched him carefully. "it's alright pal, i'm not mad at you," he tried to assure them, but they refused to move. "okay, i guess that was a lie. i am mad at you. furious, really. how many times did i give you my spiel before you went to face the king? how many times did i warn you against what you were doing? did you even once think that maybe you should listen to what I was saying, that nothing good would come out of sacrificing so many lives for your own needs?" Frisk flinched with each question, clearly feeling guilty. Sans relaxed a little as he finally relented. "but, i can kind of understand how, once you'd started on that path, it became hard to see that there was any other way. honestly, i'm kind of impressed that you were able to make that change on your own. so while i may be mad at you, i can also forgive you, and that's what i choose to do."

Frisk seemed to relax, but still fidgeted under his gaze. "There's something else, too," they admitted softly. Frisk glanced over at the spot of empty air they kept looking at all through their confession. "There's…a star." Sans didn't quite understand what they were saying. "A save, I mean. That's what they always look like, stars."

Sans' breath caught in his chest. "i thought you said there weren't any on the surface."

"That's what I thought too, but I was on my way out to the playground to set up for the social, and I saw this." Maybe they only showed up once the monsters were around. That made about as much sense as anything to Sans when it came to how they worked. Frisk paused for a moment, watching a light that Sans couldn't see. "I haven't used it yet. I'm not sure that I should. It kind of feels like a sign or something. After everyone left the underground, I told myself I was never going to reset again. Why should I when everyone was happy? But not everyone IS happy. Mom isn't, and Trip isn't, and…" Frisk let the thought trail off, leading Sans to wonder who else they were thinking of. The dog? Someone else? What about Frisk? Were they happy? "I said I wouldn't reset, but I could still go back to my last save if I wanted to, back before we all came to the surface. If I did, maybe I could make things better for everyone."

"is that really how you see it?" Sans asked quickly. Maybe he was being selfish, but the thought of Frisk starting up another cycle of reloading sent his mind reeling. This was their epilogue, dammit! Things were supposed to finally move forward from here, not keep looping back on itself. "that this save point is some kind of sign that you messed up and should do things over? don't you dare tell tori i used this kind of language in front of you, but that's bullshit. things might not be perfect, but that's not your fault. it's because of the choices other people have made out here, your mom's and trip's and yes, even me. you aren't going to be able to change any of that by going back. you can only change the choices you made. can you honestly say that there's a single choice you made where you weren't striving to do the right thing and care for the people you love?" Frisk didn't respond for a moment, contemplating his words. Sans kept going. "maybe the save point is a sign, but it's not a sign that you should go back. it's a sign that it's okay for you to keep going. that no matter what happens next, you don't have to worry about losing the progress you already made. but to do that, you're going to have to accept everything that's happened, good or bad, for what it is. only you can decide whether or not you're willing to do that. so go ahead, take a moment to think about this. no matter what you decide to do, i'll be right here when you're ready to move on."

Sans could only wonder what was going through Frisk's head as he waited for them to act. Part of him could almost see the other paths the timeline could take in this moment. Frisk could have chosen to go back, despite his speech. Maybe they hadn't believed him, or maybe they had and felt there really were choices they made that could change things. It's not like he'd ever know what their reason had been if they chose to do that. Or, Frisk could keep going but without saving, willing to see how this timeline played out but reserving the right to go back and try again if it turned out they were wrong. He probably would have been okay with it, if that happened. No fault to the kid for being cautious about these things. But when Frisk finally got up from the bench and walked over to the empty patch of air, he knew his words had gotten through to them. Their eyes were bright and sparkling, reflecting yellow pinpoints of light from an unseen source.

"The thought of finally being able to keep going forward with your friends fills you with determination." Sans could barely hear Frisk whisper those words to themselves. Their lips quivered and Frisk rubbed their eyes. It looked like they were torn between smiling and crying. After a moment Frisk managed to regain their composure, and they turned to Sans with a smile. Sans smiled back and offered out his hand. Taking it, Frisk lead the way, guiding them through the school to rejoin their friends. They had a party waiting on them after all, and an entire lifetime moving forward after that.


End file.
